7 September 2015 - clean energy

Paul can persevere in his sufferings because of God. It is "his power working within" Paul that makes it possible. With the psalmist, Paul does not trust in himself, nor in the resources of this world, but instead says, "Only in God be at rest, my soul".

If we trust in our own strength or the resources of this world any blip in that tenuous source of power can cause us to freak out. Those blips are experienced as sufferings. It is when the world comes up short. When the resources of the world are insufficient for our needs we suffer. But if our hope is in God we need not lose our peace. The power we have from him is a steady stream. There are no outages. There are no brownouts.

The Holy Spirit is the power source that is a necessary prerequisite to transforming our own sufferings into something of value. Rather than drawing from the grid of this world and coming up short we become able to feed power back into that grid for others.

I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake,
and in my flesh I am filling up
what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ
on behalf of his Body, which is the Church

When we run on the power of God's Spirit and not on this world we are free to live and work for his kingdom. Normally, we care a lot about what the Pharisees think. We take the rules at face value so that we can make a good appearance before the world. We worry that the world will cut our power off if we deviate in the slightest. But Jesus runs on the power he receives from the Father. He need not and does not care what the Pharisees think. He is not trapped by the letter of the law when there are lives to be saved and people to heal.

“I ask you, is it lawful to do good on the sabbath
rather than to do evil,
to save life rather than to destroy it?”

If our own hands are too withered to work for the kingdom let us reach out toward the one who can heal us.

“Stretch out your hand.”
He did so and his hand was restored.

Let us first acknowledge that there is one who is utterly above the normal limitations of this world. In him we see a source of life with no variance. We see a love that never fails. Then as we reach out to him let us experience that source of life and power ourselves. Let us free ourselves from dependence on the power grid of the world, the flesh, and the devil. Instead, let us trust in God for all our needs.

Trust in him at all times, O my people!
Pour out your hearts before him;
God is our refuge!