Home » Programs » A World of Difference » Comparing Power

Comparing Power

Debate rages regarding the amount of freedom any of us has. Even the most “free” among us faces constraints imposed by genetic makeup, educational opportunities, personal ambition and lots of other things. Many, perhaps all of us, are our own worst enemies. We allow our weaknesses to define us, delineate the boundaries which contain us, and determine our destiny.

Some influences, within and without, are extremely negative. They hold us down, keep us back, and jam us into corners from which there is no escape. Some of these are freely chosen at first, others are among the givens of life which we may accept or rise up and fight against. In both cases, the path of least resistance puts us at the mercy of all kinds of negative influences.

I am personally acquainted with people who have allowed specific things to dominate their lives. They fall into remarkably few categories: drugs, including alcohol and tobacco, sex, including pornography and promiscuity, food, including eating obsessions and self-starvation, sensory stimulation, including music, media and video games, money, including work and gambling, power, including, personal domination and social status, and emotions like hate and fear.

You’d think we’d be able to get control of these things and get on with life, but most of us can’t. Not only do we have to contend with our own inner compulsions to submit to these things, we have to overcome the messages with which those who make money from them barrage us. Faced with these challenges, many give up.

But we don’t have to cave in either to our own weaknesses or those who capitalize on them. Just as I know people who are dominated by the things I mentioned, I also know people who have risen above them. These people have learned that God doesn’t intend for us to be helpless victims.

They have all learned the same lessons. First, they had to deal with the past. The things that grip our lives typically damage not only ourselves but those around us. They lead us deeper into sin by harming others. So we seek forgiveness for that. Tied to that is the recognition that not only have they damaged themselves and harmed others, they have offended God by replacing Him with whatever it was that controlled them and hurt others.

Lastly, having experienced God’s forgiveness, they move forward in the power of new spiritual life, overcoming their weakness. Sometimes this happens all at once with an amazing display of power. Sometimes, it happens a day at a time for the rest of their lives. Either way, they experience that when Jesus set them free, they were free indeed. (See John 8:36)

When it comes to comparing power, there’s a world of difference between that which our sin has in keeping us enslaved and that which is released by the love of God to set us free.

Ron Hughes
© September 2008