Striving for Power
OPENING PRAYER:
Father, help us open our hearts to your truths today. Break down our guards and open our ears to your message.
The LORD said to Gideon, “You have too many men. I cannot deliver Midian into their hands, or Israel would boast against me, ‘My own strength has saved me.’ Judges 7:2
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:8-9
REFLECT:
In biblical times and in current day, we see men seeking power over others. The biggest, strongest, boldest man wins and winning is what’s important. That’s the way of the world and, as we see in Gideon’s account, it would be easy for man to boast of his own power in victory.
God’s way is different. God often uses the underdog – the one that is humble and meek…the one that has every reason to doubt their usefulness. These are the people that God tends to use for the biggest impact and the ones he counts as blessed in his Word.
We see this all through scripture and in today’s society, yet so many of us are still striving for power. We look to who the world sees as powerful to be our savior instead of the God who came to earth as a humble human and offered himself up on a cross to bear the weight of the sin of the world.
APPLY:
As humans, we focus on the wrong things – we use tactics that are ineffective and even downright damaging. But when we turn our eyes to God, we see time and time again that His ways are better.
In what ways are you using your own methods to accomplish God’s will instead of trusting his methods? How can you refocus your heart on God and the ways that are good, true, and right? How can you check your motives and actions against their fruit and ensure that your works are bearing the fruit of the Spirit and not of the flesh (Galatians 5)?
CLOSING PRAYER:
Father, help us approach our days with your message in mind and to seek your kingdom first.