British evangelist Alan Redpath (1907-1989) recalls going with a pastor friend to an old village church in the north of England during the early days of World War II. They met the vicar there in charge of that parish. Redpath wrote, "He took us into his old vicarage, and we went inside and discovered it had all been modernized. It had electric lights, an electric stove, electric heat, electric everything. You’d almost have thought it was in Chicago instead of in Carlisle, with all the gadgets in the world imaginable. Everything was there, but lo and behold there was all the dirt and the smoke of oil lamps that they were still using. As I raised my eyebrows and looked somewhat astonished, the vicar looked at me wistfully and said, ‘Yes, my friend. You see, the trouble is there’s a war on now and we have everything in this house except the power.’”
There could be no more graphic description of many lives today than that. We have the machinery. We have the equipment. We have the tools. We have everything except the power. This is the great need of our lives. We do not need knowledge, social graces, or charming personalities nearly so much as we need the power to live right.
I once heard a doctor say, “No man should ever smoke under any circumstances.” Do you know what he was hiding while he said that? That’s right, he was smoking. He knew what was right but did not have the power to do it. I once knew a teacher who taught a course on “Marriage and the Family” at the same time as her own marriage was crumbling. She knew what was right but did not have the power to do it.
We are all that way. However, the situation is not hopeless. There is power available for life. “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7).
Do you lack power for life? Turn to God. He can help you.