Unshackled Moments ~ March 6, 2018 ~ The Power Continuum

Being powerless sucks. But thank God for the awareness of powerlessness. The truth is, on our own, we are all powerless over self and sin. If you don't like the term sin, feel free to adopt the recovery jargon of character defects. The Bible calls our sin nature the flesh, and character defects means that there is something defective in us that needs to be changed, healed and restored to what it should be. Regardless of what we call it, we each and every one of us have one or more areas of powerlessness that separate us from contentment, peace, joy, love, hope, other fruits of the Spirit, and most of all from Daddy. But while being powerless is the essence of the human tragedy, awareness of powerlessness is a blessing. Awareness is the difference between the sinner and the Pharisee in Luke 18: 9-14. Awareness of powerlessness leads to realizing our bondage and the desperation of the drowning that drives us to Daddy in search of rescue, freedom and life.

Where awareness of powerlessness leads to desperation, awareness of power and the source of power leads to freedom and relationship with Daddy. When we are aware of Daddy's love for us and the power of the Spirit within us as a result of the work of Jesus, we are able to walk free from the things that held us captive, including our own self, defectiveness and, yes, sin or wrong doing. We are able to live in, by and through love. Only when we are aware of the power freely available to us in God, can we love God and others as we should, and it is that love that is the truth that makes us free.

We began at one end of a continuum, being powerless. As we become aware of that powerlessness, we begin to see our desperate need for help, for power that is greater than our own. That drives us to Daddy and relationship with Him, which leads to power to be free, to have a life worth living and live love. But let us beware losing the awareness of the source of our power once we reach that place of freedom and life.

To continue through the area of awareness and lose sight of the source, leads to a place as deadly and destructive as the starting powerlessness. Power without awareness causes us to forget the source. This leads to self confidence and self reliance, to self righteousness and pride. We begin to feel superior to others and satisfied with our own performance. Which, turns us into the pharisee.This causes two very destructive results. First, we cease to walk in love and compassion and empathy towards others, hurting them, making them feel judged and inferior and driving them away from the Daddy who loves them because of the way we, His children, treat them. And second, we begin to live by our own power and will. Of course, since our own power and will is insufficient, we stray from the place of power in the Spirit and arrive full circle back to the beginning. We stumble, we fall, and we return to the land of our captivity (relapse) or find ourselves in bondage in a new area.

Let us pray to always be aware of our powerlessness, our need for Jesus, aware of His love for us and the free gift of power available to us in the presence of the Spirit within us, and ever aware that it is the Spirit and nothing in and of ourselves that is the source and sustainer of that power that we may be able to remain rooted in love and of maximum service to God and others.

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