Mar 24 - "The Power In You"

Exodus 7:8-24
The LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "When Pharaoh says to you, ‘Perform a wonder,’ then you shall say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and throw it down before Pharaoh, and it will become a snake.’ ” So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did as the LORD had commanded; Aaron threw down his staff before Pharaoh and his officials, and it became a snake. Then Pharaoh summoned the wise men and the sorcerers; and they also, the magicians of Egypt, did the same by their secret arts. Each one threw down his staff, and they became snakes; but Aaron’s staff swallowed up theirs. Still Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the LORD had said.
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God is all-powerful, all-knowing and ever-present. He created the earth and the heavens. He has the power to do anything...literally, no miracle is too large, no task is too great. Nothing is beyond Him.

If this is the case, why can't God change the heart of one man? How is this possible?

Pharaoh is just one example of many throughout the Bible, as well as in the times up to and including today, where people have been able to temporarily deny the will of God. Look around us. There are certainly people in our lives who, when considering God, range from a mild interest, to indifference, to an agnostic chill, to ardent disbelief, even to militant atheism. All of them are denying God in varying degrees. They are, looking at it one way, more powerful than God.

I have denied God. I have had a time in my life where I no longer believed in Him. Because of a tragedy in my extended family many years ago, I decided that God did not exist. Looking back on this, I realize this choice I made was my way of exercising my power over God. I was lashing out at Him. Fortunately for me, this relationship has long since been restored.

In our human forms, each of us has the ability, the power, to deny God. God noes not require our faith. God wants us to be in relationship with Him, leaning on Him for help and support, giving Him thanks for the many blessings in our lives. Not because He needs it, but because we need it. But we sin and fall short, missing the mark of the ideals He has set before us. Would it be better if we had no power? Would our lives be easier if we did not have the ability to choose or deny God? Is this a trick, this ability to deny Him? No, it is the free will He has given us to chose. By choosing Him, we become fully invested in the relationship. If we had no choice, we would see our relationship with God as a given, something easily obtained and grasped. Would we value it as much as a relationship for which we have had to work? Easy come, easy go.

So, recognize the power that is in you. In a way, you have a power that is greater than God's; use it wisely. But, the good news is,that even if we deny God while we are in this world, when we stand before Him and His Son at the end of our days on earth, we will no longer have human eyes, seeing through the glass darkly. We will know that God had the power...has the power to do more for us than we can ask or imagine. Each of us will walk towards Him, ready to accept His love and the authority of His power. And the best news? He will stand there will open and loving arms, forgetting and forgiving our denial, welcoming us in.