Our Source of Power

Throughout my college years, one of my favorite pastimes was meeting fellow students, discovering their major, and then peppering them with questions. Why? Because it is exciting to learn new things and appreciate the amount of work that goes into pursuing different careers. I was usually left with an incredible amount of awareness that I could never accomplish certain career paths, but alas. I had several medical student friends and if we could agree to not talk about needles, we could usually have a nice conversation. But even among medical students there was a wide variety of interest and focus. I met nursing students excited to go into pediatrics, others into ICU wings, while others still into geriatrics. 

“The geriatrics department has to be so difficult, I imagine.” I would comment. “Knowing that the folks there are nearing the end and having to deal with loss all the time would seem overwhelming.” They would certainly agree with me, but I couldn’t deny their desire and gifting and I could tell that the Lord was preparing the for those ministry opportunities. 

It is tempting to look at the frailty of humanity and get discouraged. No one likes the concept of death, and its presence can cause even the strongest of personalities to pause and consider. 

This was just as true during biblical times as it is today. The Apostle Paul had to deal with people discrediting his message or challenging his authority due to some physical malady from which he suffered. He made frequent comments to the fact that he had a ministry held in nothing but a clay jar (2 Cor. 4.) I imagine his flesh wanted to remind people that he was theologically trained by the premier pharisee of that day or that he had been not just a rising star in the Jewish tradition, but following his conversion was personally commissioned by Jesus Himself. This must have been a temptation, but Paul recognized that if he tethered the truth and power of his gospel ministry to human strength or wisdom, he would inevitably lose. Why? Because he was still a sinner subjected to the same struggles and failures as anyone else. The power of his gospel did not rest within himself, but in an infinitely greater authority.

Listen to his words. 

“And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.” (1 Cor. 2:1-4)

What a powerful example and testimony! Paul cared nothing about his own reputation and did not want his readers to look to him for their hope. Paul was incredibly gifted and certainly called, but that gifting did not originate in him. 

May we be quick to point others to the one who truly has all power and authority. In whatever career you lead or ministry you have never forgetting that our faith rests not in human effort but in the power of God. 

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