Real Power Needed

I recently heard someone who lives in Eastern Europe talk how our lives can become cold and lifeless. He described being in Moscow last winter when it was -38 degrees Celsius (which is -36 degrees Fahrenheit). In that severe condition his car had no life. The battery was stone cold dead.

He went on. Was the answer to give the car a new paint job? Perhaps cleaning all the trash out of the passenger compartment would help. Since he was in Russia, maybe the answer was to open the hood and pour a generous portion of Vodka on the engine. As creative as that sounds, it would not work. The only answer was to get the cold dead battery connected with a strong power source that could recharge it.

We don’t have to be mechanics to see that, but his point was that when it comes to our lives, we often try all the wrong things to get ourselves going. We think a new look will perk us up or that the answer is to get more organized. Our brain remembers a nice feeling we have after a glass of wine, and we decide that more of that will be good for us.

When the battery is dead, finding a friend or at least an auto service, raising the hood, putting on the jumper cables and connecting with a strong live battery may not sound so glamorous but it is the only answer. Like the car in Moscow, we will find no cosmetic or alcoholic solution when we are stalled. We need a connection with power. Openness with a friend, focus on Scripture and patient time in prayer brings the dead back to life.

Focus Scripture

Psalm 42:1-5

As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for you, O God.
2My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When can I go and meet with God?
3My tears have been my food
day and night,
while men say to me all day long,
"Where is your God?"
4These things I remember
as I pour out my soul:
how I used to go with the multitude,
leading the procession to the house of God,
with shouts of joy and thanksgiving
among the festive throng.

5Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God.