Praise Him Anyway

You often hear that you have the power in you to make things happen. You can do it, if you just believe you can.  What’s the difference from believing that way or believing that the only power given is the power of the Spirit, who lives in you. After all, you have the Spirit in you, so doesn’t that mean then that you have the power that is in you.   There would probably be nothing wrong with that except that when we are told enough  that we have the power, and we see activity that can only come extraordinary, we could easily be duped into believing that we did this. But when we always give the praise to the One who works in us, we recognize that we don’t have any power within ourselves.  Paul would end his letter to the Romans this way: “Now to Him who has power to strengthen you according to  my gospel and the proclamation about Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept silent for long ages but now revealed and made known through the prophetic Scriptures, according to the command of the eternal God to advance the obedience of faith among all nations – to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ – to Him be the glory forever! Amen.”  Romans 16: 25-27  Paul could have easily taken credit for the things that he did for the sake of the gospel. But he was cognizant of his lack of strength, and the power of the Spirit Who worked in him, to accomplish what God wanted.  Not what Paul wanted, but he was always desirous to do God’s will and not his own.  It takes faith to move a mountain, and if we had that kind of faith, and that mountain moved, would we jump up and down for joy that we did that? Or would we give praise to God for doing that through us.  How many times have we prayed that some kind of event would happen, only to have that happen, but we focused on that fact that we prayed, and not on the fact that God did this thing, even though you prayed for it.  All glory goes to him for all the things that happen in a way that we cannot explain, yet we call those blessings.  They may very well be, but what about when things do not go your way, or go differently than what you prayed for?   Would you thank God for the answer anyway? Would you praise Him because He answered in a different way from what you wanted?  Yes, prayers are essential, but it is not the way your prayers go that makes God respond, but rather it is His will that causes a response, even when it goes against what you asked for. Pastor Andy