The seeking of power (part one)

As I think about different things my mind continues to come back to this idea of power.  Men and women both are after it.  It can be as small as having the power of controlling the remote to the television or as big as being president.  When I was a junior in college one of the students wanted to be on student council I have no idea why, but he wanted that position.  He wanted it so badly that after being defeated in two different elections.  He found an old bylaw, a loophole, to get himself on council.  He was so proud of himself; the rest of us really didn’t care.  But what is about power, why do so many people seek it, and what is the source to real power.  Back in the beginning of the Church there was a group of men who were given power in Jerusalem it was not a great deal of power, the Roman government gave it to them to maintain the peace.  They were highly educated and very wealthy; their world was turned upside down by one Man.  This man’s name was Jesus; He had become a thorn in their side, so they crucified Him.  Thought that was the end of Him and those that followed Him.  But they were wrong, you see about three months after He had risen from the dead, His followers where out preaching and praying.  They had happen to heal a man who had never walked in his life, more than 2000 came to join the church that day (Acts 3)

The council then called these two men, Peter and James to meet with them.   They asked them, “where did you get this power?”  When they were told that the power they had, came from Christ it upset them deeply.  But what was even more upsetting to them was the fact that these men who were uneducated and where able to influence so many people.  You see they thought themselves to be better than others because of their family and education.  They felt a sense of entitlement to power.  I think that we sometimes feel that we are entitled to power.  That people just owe it to us, that we are better then they are.   Truth be told I have noticed that God doesn’t use those we would expect Him to use He uses those that are humble and not looking for power.  He desires those that will seek Him out.  I hope to in the next few blogs dig a little deeper into the areas of power we seek out and how that affects are relationship with God.