For a lot of people in California, the year 2001 began in the dark! The headlines kept telling us that millions of Californians were having to endure what was called “rolling blackouts”. Apparently, when the energy industry was deregulated, it was supposed to lead to utilities buying power at lower prices – instead, prices skyrocketed. And deregulation also forbade them to raise prices to the consumer. Whatever the cause, the result was clear. For certain designated hours, the power company had to turn off the power to different areas at different times. So when the blackout rolled into your area, you suddenly had no electricity – and if you had something to do during that time that required that power – tough!
Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A WORD WITH YOU today about “Rolling Blackouts”.
I’ve never lived in California, but I’ve experienced rolling blackouts – in finding the power I needed to handle the challenges I was facing at the time. It’s the kind of power failure we all know about -- where the demands of our work, our family, or our problems are so great that we just don’t have the resources to handle them.
It usually happens when the demand is greatest. Suddenly, you just don’t have the answers...you just don’t have the wisdom to know what to do...you don’t have the patience...or the love...or the endurance you need. Rolling blackouts. You may be experiencing them right now. You don’t have to.
If you belong to Jesus, then God is your Father – and His power is infinite. Yours isn’t, and it runs out over and over again. If you’re experiencing rolling blackouts, you must be depending on the wrong power source – because God has no blackouts.
Hebrews 4:16, our word for today from the Word of God, is His invitation to tap into His never-failing resources anytime and anywhere. Here’s the invitation – “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” God invites us to boldly enter the Throne Room from which the galaxies are governed, go to the One who runs it all with our wounds and our needs, and walk out of there with His endless grace resources to meet our demands.
So if blackouts keep rolling through your life, you must not be doing what God said. There are several mistakes we make that limit us to what our resources can handle instead of what God’s resources can handle. Sometimes, we just forget to pray. We’re so immersed and overwhelmed that we just don’t think to go for the grace that will change everything. Or, we remember to pray, but we don’t release it to God. Philippians 4:6-7 tell us that we get God’s peace when God gets our anxieties – and a lot of times we tell God about what we’re facing, but we don’t leave it there.
Other times we fail to exchange our weakness for His strength. That’s the trade God wants to make –but we have to admit our powerlessness and then consciously trade it in for His power. One other mistake that leads to personal power failures – we run ahead of His grace. The Bible clearly tells us that “your strength will equal your days” (Deuteronomy 33:35). God delivers the grace and power you need for that day, and only that day. If your worry and anxiety has you already living what may happen tomorrow or next week or next year, you’re handling it before you’ve got the grace for it!
So always go for the grace the moment requires. Your personal power plant is located in the Throne Room of the Most High God. And when you draw your power from Him all day long…goodbye, rolling blackouts. You will never lack the power to meet the demands.
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