God’s Empowering Presence

There’s something freeing about a fresh start. We hope that a new year, a new job, a new town, or school will make things work out differently. We’ll have a different routine, work harder, get better grades, have better relationships, improved eating, sleeping, and exercising. 

But it only takes a short while to realize that old patterns have resurfaced. The laziness that affected us last year returns. The compulsion to overwork bings like a blackberry. The desire to get up 15 minutes earlier to read and pray dies when you hit snooze for the 3rdtime.

Fresh starts are great. But fresh starts don’t bring the change. Why?

The problem is a wrong diagnosis: we think the problem is out there: Circumstances. People. Situations. So change the external factors, dig down a little deeper within, and “Voilà!” It’s fixed!

The problem isn’t the law, commands, circumstances, or situations – it’s not out there. It’s a heart problem. The reason you touch wet paint when the sign says, “Wet Paint; Do Not Touch,” isn’t because there’s a problem with the sign. It’s in you. 

The solution is found in Romans 8:3-4:
“For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”

Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, and sending of the Spirit is the help for the weak and powerless. The Spirit applies all of the power of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection to us (Rom 8:11)! The old poem says it well:

Run and run, the law demands, but gives us neither feet nor hands;

Better news the gospel brings: it bids me fly and gives me wings.

The Holy Spirit is the power for you to obey and fulfill the law. No law opposes the fruit of the Spirit, because love fulfills all of the requirements of the law (Gal. 5:22)! 

So next time you’re feeling weak, powerless, and despairing, plead with God for a fresh filling of his Spirit’s empowering (Eph 5:18) and be amazed at God’s empowering Presence!