A little power outage makes one think...

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 Depend on God and keep at it because in the Lord God you have a sure thing. (Isaiah 26:4)

I depend on my vehicle to get me places I want to go. I depend upon my washing machine to clean my clothes. I depend on my light switch to bring illumination to the room when I switch it on. There are tons of things you and I depend upon each and every day - some of them without even knowing we are depending upon them. My power went out this week, not once, but twice. That meant no air conditioning, no light, and no water dispensed in the refrigerator door. I am aware I have disclosed my dependence upon a few luxuries here, but trust me on this one - in Arizona you want air conditioning, you need water, and when it is dark outside, it is going to be even darker inside! The latest power outage was for several hours and in the middle of the day. We probably all count on this 'sure thing' called electricity to be flowing through those underground lines to our homes, but when a storm hits and that 'flow' is interrupted, we are thrown into chaos. Imagine an interruption in the 'flow' of your relationship with Jesus for just a moment. Would that be considered a 'luxury', or a 'necessity' in your life?

In mine, it is a NECESSITY - no flow in that relationship means my life is thrown into chaos bigger than any 'power outage' I have ever experienced in the natural sense. It is a 'power outage' of quite another type. The power of Christ flowing in our lives is something we all need to depend upon, but I wonder if we realize when it isn't actually 'flowing' as it should be, or worse yet, it is cut off completely? That 'flow' is maintained because there is continual contact with Christ - we are engaged with him on a regular and consistent basis. In other words, we aren't just 'casual' in our relationship with him. I depend upon his power in my life as much as I depend upon breath. Cut off my breath and life is no longer sustained. Cut off my connection with Jesus and things are going to get really ugly around here!

Dependence is defined as placing one's trust in something - to rely upon it fully. I take for granted the electricity will be flowing in my household - but at best, my local electricity provider only reports a 98% success rate in accomplishing this task at my residence. Imagine for a moment if God reported to us that we could only rely upon him 98% of the time - the other 2% of the time we'd be on our own to figure things out. How would that affect you? I wonder how many of us have those numbers turned around - depending upon God about 2% of the time and trusting in our own efforts to figure things out the other 98%? Think on that one for a bit today. How much are you actually dependent upon God? How many of us would actually notice if there was a disconnection from his power in our lives? If we want power to flow unimpeded, we need to ensure the maintenance of the connection. Just sayin!

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