This morning, I turned the switch on a lamp at our church and nothing happened. I tried flipping the switch on the power strip it was plugged into, but still nothing. I tried plugging the extension cord into another outlet, but it still didn’t work. Next, I replaced the bulb. That didn’t work either.
I was about to throw the lamp in the garbage when I saw the problem. The lamp was plugged into the power strip and the extension cord was plugged into the wall outlet, but the power strip was not plugged into the extension cord. I could have tried a hundred light bulbs, but they were never going to give off light because there was not one bit of power flowing into the lamp.
No power. No light.
You already know where this is going, don’t you?
And yet, knowing isn’t enough, is it?
It wasn’t enough for me to know the lamp wasn’t getting power, I had to do something.
How many of us know that the power, the wisdom, the grace, the everything we need for life comes from God, but we fail to do anything about it? We never get ourselves plugged into Him.
Instead, we plug into the world. And we miss out on the life God has in store for us. But we also make a mess of our lives, our relationships, our finances and anything else we touch.
God offers to give us wisdom, but we settle for the principles of the world. God offers us His power, but we’re content to struggle in our own strength. God offers to supply our needs, but we’d rather anxiously run about supplying them ourselves.
Maybe you’re thinking, “That’s not true–I do want God’s wisdom and power and provision.”
Do you? Do I?
In John 15, Jesus said:
5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
If you and I want a truly different life than we’re experiencing, then we need a truly different source of life.
Jesus said to remain in Him just like a branch remains in the vine. Are you and I that connected to Jesus?
We don’t find Him online or on Facebook or on television or in a playlist of our favorite secular songs. We don’t find Jesus as we hurry out the door to go to work or to class. We don’t find Him in the relationship with the person that doesn’t even know Him.
Have you noticed that God doesn’t push Himself on us?
He doesn’t demand we do things His way. He doesn’t step in and override our choices.
He invites us to seek Him. He doesn’t make us.
He offers His wisdom and power. He doesn’t force us to accept them.
He lets us choose Him. Or not.
Has your light gone out? Have your choices made a mess of things? Do you lack the power or even the desire to live according to God’s ways? Has all motivation to read the Bible gone?
You’re unplugged.
Nothing will change until You get plugged in again.
It’s time. Today. Right now.
Don’t stay unplugged any longer.
Turn off the noise. Pick up your Bible. Listen to God. Talk to Him. Tell Him You need Him and you want Him. If you don’t want Him, then at least tell Him you want to want Him. Ask Him for help. He’ll give it.