Enlisting God’s Power for Change

“Half measures availed us nothing. We stood at the turning point. We asked His protection and care with complete abandon.”

— Alcoholics Anonymous

There is one way to change and one way only—by a searching commitment that renews itself each day, afresh. It’s the only way change can sustain itself; otherwise it withers and dies for lack of vision.

Within that searching recommitment each day is the power of God, to become a new creation, in this specific way. It’s the keeping of a special covenant.

God will give us power, but only in apportionment to our momentary and matching commitment.

God judges our diligence, and, if it’s found wanting, his power leaves the presence of our need. God’s power combines with our volition. If we will give ourselves to any good thing, God will grace us with Spiritual Power; but that thing must be in his will for us.

It would be no good to commit ourselves to the wrong thing, or at the wrong time, or in the wrong way.

We Stood There at the Turning Point

We’ve all stood there, on the doorstep of our destiny. And which way would we go? Truly we had a choice.

In the past we had tried the easy way, but found with ease came pain—for wasting our time; for disobeying the will of God at the availing of his opportunity of renewal for us.

Perhaps we were sick and tired of that—sick and tired of being sick and tired (spiritually).

So we gathered up all the strength of mind and heart we had in us in our prayerful plight; suddenly, what was added to us was the power of God. God came in for us when we sought his care and protection—when we engaged in surrender by doing his will, which was to commit to the change by our behaviour.

We pushed off from the quay and embarked on a journey promising some terrifically high seas, and resolved never to look back for too long, but to keep moving slowly and surely forward of our previous mark.

We monitored our progress and found at each stage—praise God for his provident grace—we were within the channel markers and we enjoyed peace and a hopefulness we’d always sought, but may have doubted was possible for us.

All this because we joined commitment with trust in the power of God to get us there.

Note: the act of trusting the power of God this way comes with a bonus. God will always show us something new; uncovering one of his mysteries that we’ve previously not known, misunderstood, or failed to comprehend.

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God will give us power, but only in apportionment to our momentary and matching commitment. We are always blessed to trust in the power of God to help with change.

© 2013 S. J. Wickham.