The god of power invites you
to save yourself instead of depending upon Jesus to do it. This is one of the
reasons that the most successful of people often have the hardest of times
becoming followers of Christ. Being a devoted disciple means they must
acknowledge their own helplessness and their ultimate need—the need for rescue.
It is not easy for a successful person to admit the need for help.
This world puts the emphasis
on being self-sufficient and self-reliant, acting as if we've got it all figured
out. But Jesus redefines power as one who humbly says to God, "I can't do
this on my own. I need your help." From the world's perspective, that's
the opposite of what powerful people do. Jesus takes power and turns it upside
down. We think that power is about being the king of the hill. Jesus points to
the downtrodden, humble, and pure-hearted who refuse to play the world's game
as the powerful ones.
Paul says in 2 Corinthians
12:9-10: "But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power
is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about
my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s
sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in
difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."
Boasting in our weaknesses
seems so foreign to us. For some people, the idea of standing before God
without an impressive resume is unthinkable. We want to show him our success
and prove our worth. But to God, success is precisely the opposite of that.
It's being willing to step away from all the stuff, all the achievements, and
say, "None of that means a thing to me, Lord. I lay it all before you; you
and only you are my success." The gods of power want us to believe that
our significance comes from what we make of ourselves. But we find our true
identity in Christ. He has marked us as his own, and that's what makes us
valuable. That's where our value is found. He forever determined our value when
he died on the cross for us.
