SubscribeDevotional - Power Loss
I love the Fall season! It must be my favorite time of the year. Given the hotter than normal summer (at least it felt that way to me); I was thrilled when cooler weather recently began teasing us! This past weekend I took some time to trim the hedges around our house. Not a major cutting, more of a trim to even them up. A few branches were stretching toward the sky as if Jesus was on his way back!
As I topped the hedges and cleaned up their backs (against the house) I was feeling good about actually having the time and weather to enjoy such work. I was working my electric trimmers with a sense of joy and accomplishment. Leveling the tops … cleaning up the backs … working with a smooth arching motion to achieve a nice flow of green between hedges … until the trimmers died. Just stopped running. No rapid whirring of the blades moving back forth. No branches being cleanly cut and falling to the ground. Just silence.
So I did what any man would do. I pulled the power trigger again … again … and again. I shook the trimmers as if that kind of motion would jump-start the action. Surprisingly, it didn’t help. I checked the power cord plug into the trimmers … seemed good. Checked the power cord plug into the outdoor wall socket … seemed good. So, I checked the fuse box and there it was. The fuse has tripped. I flipped it back on and hustled back to my trimmers to continue my work.
Nothing. Still didn’t work. I tried it again … again … again. And, yes, I shook it again. Nothing worked. And then I saw it. There was a nick in the extension cord. Apparently, while I was getting carried away with my trim work I nicked the power cord. So, the cord was attached … the power was coming through the fuse box … but I still couldn’t get power to the trimmers. That nick stopped all from getting to the trimmers. The source was useless with a good connection.
Sometimes that’s how my faith is. I know God is there with me. He’s always there with me. There’s power at the source … lots of really good power! The problem is I get caught in my worldly life, get distracted from the power source, and nick the “extension cord” of my faith. It may be sin. It may be worldly distractions. It may be sheer busyness. Whichever one it is … it attracts and holds my attention to the point of ignoring God, if not turning my back to Him. And therein lays the problem. I’ve nicked the power without knowing I did. Then I move along with life as if nothing has changed. But it surely has!
If only God would reconnect the power … or at least tap me on the shoulder to let me know I’ve cut the power off. But I don’t think He readily does. Why? Because I’m the one who cut the power. Just like Genesis says Adam and Eve did in the Garden of Eden. Ever since that time God has sought to reconcile us (me) back to Him. First through the Exodus, then through the prophets and the writings, and now through Christ. And there I am cutting the power off … over and over and over, again.
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.” (John 15:1-8)
Blessings!
Pastor Steve
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