11May16

1 Corinthians 4:20
For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power.

As I am packing for a two day retreat for Chaplains here in Korea I started to think about power. How am I going to charge my phone, my headphones, or blow up my air mattress (we're sleeping on the floor)? I'm assuming that, since we are going to a civilian location, that the power is going to be 220w instead of the American 110w that all my chargers operate in. I ran into this same problem when we were deployed to Poland last year. While I was trying to set up my theater for the Soldiers I plugged in a 110w power strip to the wall with a small adaptor I had. It popped, sizzled, smoked, and then all the power went out. I flipped the breaker and pulled out another power strip (I don't learn too quickly) only to have it do the exact same thing. I was trying to draw the power out in the wrong way. I didn't have the right conduit for the job.

God is a God of power. He has limitless amounts of it. But, he doesn't throw it around willy nilly. He allows us to tap into Him. To recharge. To become active. To do the miraculous. But, I think there are many times that we try to tap into the power of God with the wrong conduit. We don't want to spend the time in prayer or meditation. We don't want to read the scripture. We just want it now. And then we wonder why we're all blown up, burnt out, and fizzled with no power. The source is there. He's ready to move and work. But, he doesn't work on our terms... we need to work on His.

I ended up buying a 5 port 220w power strip and five different adaptors to make everything work. It cost me a little money and a lot of time to get it all put together. But, when I plugged it in... I had power! I was able to show movies to the Soldiers, host game nights, hold Bible studies, and project for worship services! I just had to take the time to tap into the source their way. Not mine. (Plus, now I have this nifty powerstrip for this weekend's events)!

How do you tap into the power of God? Are you trying to do it your way or His?