How do we see God's resurrection power?

I didn't go to church this week. I was tired, I didn't feel like it, I was busy, all manner of excuses - when in reality, I was feeling vulnerable and I didn't want my friends to see me like that. Instead of beating myself up for not going, I looked back over a recent preach by Alex Wood who is student pastor at St. Peter's. His talk really spoke to me yet I walked away from church that day and didn't really take what I'd learned into the new week. As such, it fits nicely into Monday Ministry over on Tania's blog.

These are just my notes/my interpretation - if you want to hear the talk for yourself, it's a good'un and can be found here.

Judges 7:1-7 is a passage of the Bible where God strips Gideon's army from around 32,000 men to just 300 and yet still promises him the victory. However, that victory is to be recognised as His strength, not the armies numbers! It is often when we are stripped right back that we see God's resurrection power.

So, how do we see God's resurrection power?

1. Surrender our strengths

This is always painful - what do I normally flee to in times of trial? For me, often it's sheer stubbornness and determination. However, it is safe to let God strip us back - we always have His strength. If we don't fully surrender our strengths to God, then we can't fully see His resurrection power.

How do we do this?

a) Use our God-given gifts. I'm an organiser, I like lists and admin. I'm also someone who loves to connect with people on a human level - to just meet for coffee and find out how they're getting on. I'm hugely stubborn, determined and independent, it means I persevere when it all feels ridiculously impossible.
b) Recognise that these gifts are God-given and always surrender them back to Him.
c) The serenity prayer: "God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
The courage to change the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference."

2. Embrace our weaknesses

No matter how full of weaknesses we are, Jesus loves us anyway and so should our church community. It's exhausting trying to hide our weaknesses from the world and from God. It's also a bit futile when you think about it - God knows every ounce of my being, so of course He knows that I struggle with emotional eating, that sometimes I'm intolerant to other people, that I'm more self-centred than I'd like to be, that my physical health is not always that great. God can turn our weaknesses into strengths so there is no point in hiding them and it is in our weaknesses that we begin to pray for His strength to help us. He never causes bad for us, but when we surrender it to Him, He can use the bad to make something good.

2 Corinthians 12:9 - "Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me." 

God doesn't call the equipped, He equips the called.

3. Expect God's power

Throughout the Bible we see stories of people expectant of God's power - for example, Moses and the Red Sea. He knows that they cannot escape without God's help, he believes that God has a way. 

Jesus is a working example of this - He surrendered His strength as God, embraced the weakness of being human before being nailed and vulnerable on a cross, separated from the Father. It was then that He experienced God's resurrection power and was raised from the dead. If God can raise Jesus from the dead then surely there is no part of my life that can be too far gone for God to reach. What was overcome on the cross, is far bleaker than anything we can come across in life.

It's hard going and I'm constantly needing to remind myself to surrender my strengths, embrace my weaknesses and then expect God to move. Hopefully with practice it will become more natural!

TTFN x