Day 24: Power along the way...

Mark Daniel spoke powerfully to us on Sunday morning.  If you didn't hear the message yet, please be encouraged to get a copy or download the podcast here when it becomes available.  Not only did he help us with a fresh perspective on John 14 (which we looked at back on Day 13 if you want to remind yourself), but he also encouraged us to seek after God so that our faith will increase - and encouraged us to step out in faith.

Mark shared stories from the Bible where people had to trust in God that His plans were going to come together even though to human eyes things may have looked hopeless.  He reminded us of the stories of the Israelites approaching the Red Sea with the Egyptian army at their back, and the story of the lepers being healed as they returned to their village in Luke 17, where we read: "Jesus looked at them and said, "Go show yourselves to the priests."  And as they went, they were cleansed of their leprosy." (Luke 17:14)  Mark encouraged us that we see from these stories that there is power along the way - as we follow God's word, He shows up.

The lepers would likely have been expecting their healing, since they had just asked for it, but the Israelites probably were not anticipating the sea parting so that they could walk through on dry land.  In both circumstances, whether the answer looked as they had imagined or not, God met with His people in mighty ways - bringing salvation in each situation.

As we seek to follow Jesus' commandment to love one another (John 13:34) today, we need to be expecting power along the way.  We might not feel like loving that person, we may think we have nothing to offer, or that the person shows no discernible need that we can meet.  It may be a challenge to open ourselves up and love somebody today.  We may even be becoming a little jaded with the effort of thinking of creative ways to love another person.  But we need to remember that our God is the God who provides power along the way.  As we seek to love one another, we should expect to see His power.

And when you have seen it, please be encouraged to share it in the comments!

(Side note - don't forget that Mark is speaking again tonight at 7:30pm - be there if you can!)

For the kids:
When you read a story or watch a TV show you can often guess what is going to happen.  There is usually a lesson to be learnt and a happy ending and chances are that you could pause midway and figure out the rest of the plot and get it right most of the time.  Life is not always like that.  Sometimes we don't know what is going to happen.  We can't tell for sure. 

There are lots of stories in the Bible - like Moses and the Israelites crossing the Red Sea - where if you paused midway and tried to guess what would happen, without having read it before, you might not be able to imagine how it was going to turn out.  Would you have guessed that God would part the ocean so that the Israelites could walk through on dry land?  The Israelites definitely didn't know that was coming up!  But God always shows up when we follow Him and trust Him.  Sometimes we need to step out not knowing what the ending is going to look like - but we do know this - the ending will always involve God and it will always work out for the best even if it doesn't look how we thought it might.  Loving others is hard.  Sometimes we have to make ourselves uncomfortable or do something for someone else when we have other plans or even do something when we don't know for sure that we can really do it - but we can remember that with God there is always power along the way.  And He will never let us down when we are trying our best to love one another.  No matter how old or experienced you are, expect to see His power in your life today...