Reclaiming: 3. Power

Part 3 of 4

By Rachel Theunissen

Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve been looking at the different ways we can Reclaim our relationship with God. We already looked at Reclaiming our identity and our wellbeing, today we’ll look at reclaiming our power and we’ll finish with reclaiming our purpose next week. 

In Ephesians 1:18-21 Paul prays that we will be able to understand the Power that we have now that we are ‘In Christ’. When we give our lives to Him we are then given the power of the Holy Spirit to live. 

Often when we think of power, we think of strength, or control, or things like girl power! But when Jesus considered His power in John 13:3-5 we see something totally different. It says this – 

Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power and that he had come from God and was returning to God;  so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

He knew He had all the power anyone could ever want and rather than using it to demand everyone does what He wants them to, or to take His rightful place as King. He uses his power to demonstrate His love for his friends. He knows that in a few hours, all these friends would abandon Him because one of them betrayed Him. Still, he chooses to wash their feet. 

So when we consider power, it’s not about taking control over others but taking control of ourselves. This means in a world that tells us to put ourselves first we put Him first. 

Often we can have things in our lives that control us. The Bible calls these things idols. We can think about idols and be very sure that we don’t have that primitive problem. If we do think that we’ve become blinded by our culture. Just because we don’t have a carving of Aphrodite or Venus doesn’t mean our culture isn’t bowing down to the god of sexuality & beauty, or because we’re not carrying a talisman of Plutus doesn’t mean we’re not seeking after and pursuing wealth and possessions. 

We’re deceived if we think we don’t go after these things, and the enemy is happy for us to be deceived because it means we don’t reclaim the power given to us by our loving Father. We have the power to say ‘no’ to these things by the Holy Spirit. It doesn’t mean it will be easy but we can do it. 

I think the biggest idol of our time is the ‘self’. We see this in the exponential growth of social media. I’m sure we’re all aware of how powerful it has become. We are encouraged to share photos of ourselves being happy to show the world our value. We look at others and feel our own inadequacy. It’s almost become automatic that we pick up our phone whenever we become bored or have a moment. We’re all looking for that dopamine hit of validation. 

We’ve had it drummed into us that freedom means doing whatever makes you feel good. Without any consideration of the consequences, as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone else is the only limit! There’s no definition of what constitutes hurt, or whether it matters that you’re hurting yourself. 

We’re made to reflect the Glory of God, not to try and create a glory of our own. If we start pursuing our own glory, we need to be worried. What if God gives us our desire? Would the glory that the world gives be lasting? Or would you take one step wrong and be cancelled? Our culture at the moment is very quick to just eliminate any good that’s been done by one moment of weakness or even a slightly different opinion to the norm. If you start pursuing your own glory, it won’t be long before all you’re left with are ashes and dust. 

So many things can become idols in our lives, it’s been said that our hearts are an idol factory, and it’s not that the things in themselves are bad but when they take the place of God or they become our go-to place for comfort or fulfilment then we’ve lost sight of the power of the One who made us. The One who died for us and fights for us. The One who leaves the 99 to find the 1. The One who knows that we will be most satisfied when we are resting in Him. 

So in order to reclaim our power we need to recognise the one who gives us power, we need to get to know Him through the Word and prayer. 

His power means we can say ‘no’ to things that will actually harm us. We can say ‘yes’ to living like Jesus and loving those around us sacrificially. 

This blog post was first published at www.racheltheunissen.com