It's Half-Time
There comes a time in the life of every family when they need more – when the same old thing just isn’t working – when they need power. Living, breathing, Power.
I think that through the years the word power has gotten a bad name as though there is something undignified or even flat-out totalitarian about it. Let me invite you to expand your box and give a new definition for the same old word. Power is the ability to make something out of nothing, the ability to strike a rock and from it flow clean water, the ability to part the Red Sea, to turn water into wine, or better yet, soften a heart of stone. I’ve heard many people say they believe that God is no longer a God of miracles. Some say that God only worked miracles in the times of the Old and New Testament so that He might show Himself through Christ Jesus and in the words of the prophets of long ago. I believe in a God that is filled with power, a God who is just as faithful to fulfill His promises today as He was in the Old Testament of the Bible or in the days when Jesus walked upon this Earth in the shoes of a man.
This morning I read about the Israelites, their journey through the wilderness for 40 years - never to enjoy the promise land. Sometimes I wonder if I am wondering through a desert just a few short miles from my promise land but simply lacking the faith to complete the journey. Their journey through the wilderness should have only taken a few weeks. The journey was not long. It was their faith that ran short. How often are we so close to victory and yet finish in defeat because we have not the faith to “run with perseverance the race marked out for us?”
I love how The Message words Hebrews 12:1-3, “Do you see what this means – all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we’d better get on with it. Strip down, start running – and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed – that exhilarating finish in and with God – he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!”
Sometimes that’s what I need, a little adrenaline. Sometimes that’s what our kids need as well. So often when we start to make a little progress we are hit blindly with defeat. But be of good cheer, that’s only Satan coming against you. Jesus already fought that war and won. If you were standing on the sidelines Satan wouldn’t come against you. But you have taken the ball and are racing toward the finish line. The game is not lost by a single tackle. It is lost by a team who claims defeat at half-time and willingly forfeits their victory.
