I Want to Have Power to Live My Life
Do you ever feel you don’t have the strength to live your life? Although we do not like to admit it, we all stand before God as those powerless to live our lives. Most will choose to avoid the reality that inadequacy shapes our sojourn here on planet earth. But over the course of time, powerlessness becomes unbearable.
The need for empowerment should encourage us to grasp the truth that people were never created to live apart from a dependent relationship on God. Solomon, a man acquainted with the process of seeking satisfaction from all the wrong places, provides keen insight into the notion of building a home and a country while depending on self.
Unless the Lord builds the house,
Psalm 127:1 ESV
those who build it labor in vain.
Unless the Lord watches over the city,
the watchman stays awake in vain.
Solomon failed his family, nation, and God while yielding to the temptation to seek power independently of Him who alone has the right to wield it. Independence certainly occupies high status in a time where so few actually possess it, and not possessing control becomes the impetus for wanting it.
I am divinely enabled for personal empowerment.
Desperate Dependency reminds us that
The work of the cross enables us to inherit the riches of Christ if we accept His work on our behalf. “His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3 NASB). His coffers overflow with abundant provision sufficient for every need as we are being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. A divine treasure spills over with inexhaustible wealth awaiting acquisition, and as God’s children we are heirs to His vast treasure. . . . God is our Savior, sustainer, and benefactor.
J. Kirk & Melanie D. Lewis
God wills for me to be complete in Christ and dependent on His enabling provision to accomplish His good pleasure. God supplies the power to live.
We also pray that you will be strengthened with all his glorious power so you will have all the endurance and patience you need. May you be filled with joy, always thanking the Father. He has enabled you to share in the inheritance that belongs to his people, who live in the light.
Colossians 1:11–12 NLT
Paul wants the Colossians to know that he prays regularly that God would impart his power to them, not for selfish aims but so that they can live for God in a worthy manner. . . . The purpose . . . of this God-given power is to provide the divine strength needed for the believer to attain Christian virtues, to persevere in the faith, to resist temptation and deceitful teachers, and so to know the joy of the Lord.
ESV Study Bible note regarding Colossians 1:11
Christ Gives Power to Live
We are a divinely enabled people, and as such we possess the Holy Spirit’s anointing. The distant past calls to us from Eden fostering a supernatural longing to return from whence we came as if to embrace what we formerly were. Volumes of classic literature depict selfish beings with power to circumvent the course of nature believing supremacy to be the attainment of the ultimate goal. But Solomon’s refrain reminds us,
“Absolutely futile!” laments the Teacher,
Ecclesiastes 12:8 NET
“All of these things are futile!”
Only in Christ do we find access to the forgotten land of rest from our futile striving. We may now live above the plane of the natural man, not as better, but rather as more complete through the divine enabling His grace lavishes upon us.
Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God.
2 Corinthians 3:5 NIV
He has enabled us to be ministers of his new covenant. This is a covenant not of written laws, but of the Spirit. The old written covenant ends in death; but under the new covenant, the Spirit gives life.
2 Corinthians 3:6 NLT
Empowered People Are Dependent People
Paul believed the power to live is merely the residual product of dependency upon Christ. Therefore he asserted, “So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority” (Colossians 2:10 NLT). Our Father provides divine enablement so I may be personally empowered to accomplish His purpose. His overflowing wellspring penetrates my needy soul as I find complete satisfaction in Him.
Insight Journal
- I respond to feeling powerless by . . .
Excerpts from Marriages that Minister by J. Kirk & Melanie D. Lewis. Available from your favorite book retailers, including Amazon and Redemption Press. (As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you.)
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2 thoughts on “I Want to Have Power to Live My Life”
Not only our competence but our simple ability to move. I have never felt such physical weakness as I did following my two surgeries. God is opening and closing doors in a more dramatic way than I have ever observed before. He is enabling me in the areas he chooses me “to live and move and have our being.”
Agreed! I haven’t arrived at the point of always being content with weakness yet, but I’m so grateful when His strength can be evident in my weakness!