February 16th Devotion

Your Superpower – Greg Laurie

I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms. (Ephesians 1:19-20 NLT)

Years ago, when I was visiting Israel, I plugged in my hair dryer without using a voltage converter. The dryer was about twice as powerful as it normally was, and I really liked that. But then I looked in the mirror and saw flames coming out of the dryer. It literally melted. Nowadays, we can buy appliances that have dual voltage settings—we can switch them to safely accept either 110 or 220 volts. But back then, without the use of a converter, there was too much power for my hair dryer.

Sometimes, we wonder whether we have enough power to satisfy the demands in our lives. If you’re a Christian, then you have more power than you ever will need. It’s like wondering whether you have enough power to turn on your lights when you have an entire nuclear plant exclusively powering your home. In the same way, we can be confident that God will provide all the power that we’ll ever need.

Writing to the Christians in Ephesus, Paul said, “I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called—his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance” (Ephesians 1:18 NLT). Paul went on to say, “I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms” (verses 19–20 NLT).

He was saying, “I want you to check your balance. I want you to realize how much power is available to you.” The same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead is certainly adequate to help us deal with the challenges, trials, temptations, and opportunities that we are going to encounter in life. Just as the cross was a display of God’s love, the resurrection of Jesus Christ was a display of His power for us.

All the power necessary is available to us to live the Christian life. What we need to do is simply plug in. Maybe you’ve thought, “It is so much easier to just go with the flow. I might as well do what everybody else does.” No, you can go a different direction. It takes a live fish to go upstream. If you’ve ever watched salmon swim upstream, then you know these persistent fish swim with all their effort. Not all of them make it, but some do.

Living the Christian life takes determination and, more importantly, yielding to the power that is available to you. You can make it if you want to. You can be more than a conqueror because of what Jesus Christ has done for you. The question is this: Are you going to plug in to God’s power and apply yourself? It takes commitment on a daily basis. And the moment you begin to relax, the moment you stop seeking to move forward spiritually, will be the moment your downward trend will begin.