Sharing the Power


Last night, we attended a wedding - amazing, beautiful, and a bit fearful with Hurricane Irene barreling down upon us. During the evening, Tony texted his cousin who lives a block away from the event: 


"How about us and 50 of our closest friends spending the night by you ;D LOL" 

To which cousin Dean graciously replied, "NO problem. Come on over." 

Well, we and our friends braved it home in the downpour, arriving safe and sound. The next morning, checking facebook, I saw Dean's post: 


"Anyone have a generator I can use? Powers been out since 3AM. Basement is a pond, I saw a Carp down there... NJ has been sold out of generators for a week."

He had no power and a flooded basement. We had plenty of power, a dry basement, AND a working generator. So Dean came over to our place and borrowed the generator to pump out his basement. 

You might say - he shared our power. 

Kinda like how the Lord shares His power with us…
And how we can share His power with others.


 

The LORD said to Moses: "... I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take some of the power of the Spirit that is on you and put it on them. They will share the burden of the people with you so that you will not have to carry it alone." Numbers 11:17

When the Israelites' grumbling caused Moses to cry out to God, "I cannot carry all these people by myself; the burden is too heavy for me" (v. 14), God ordered Moses to convene 70 of Israel's elders to share Moses' burden, and to share the power of the Spirit. 

God shares His power of the Spirit with us. And when our burden is too heavy for us, He spreads the power around so that we don't have to carry the burden alone. When we let our need be known, God provides trusted friends with power to help bear that burden with us. God's power is perfected in our weakness (2 Cor. 12:9). And when someone we know is carrying a heavy burden, we receive power to help them bear their load. 

In taking some of the power and putting it on others, we don't lose power any more than a candle loses its light when sharing its flame with another candle. The light just increases as it's shared. Just like love. And just like the power of the Spirit. 

Later on, we heard from Dean that driving back from our place, he stopped at Home Depot for a plug --- just as a shipment of generators arrived! Planning for the future, he bought one. Once home, Dean learned his neighbor needed a generator and so he shared ours with him. Way to share the power!! 





10 comments:

Aritha V. said...

Great blog! Thank you.

Maria said...

Love it!
Maria

Marja Verschoor-Meijers said...

Sharing the power, I like that Susan! It was quite a weekend then... :)

North Jersey Christian Writers Group said...

It WAS quite the weekend. One in which we were triple booked! Tony & I split the afternoon parties (a 1st & 50th b'day) and we attended the wedding together at night. Hurricanes can't stop us from partying LOL!

But the aftermath is causing more issues than the hurricane. Please keep our family & neighbors in prayer as we deal with flooding and power outages.

I just love how God teaches us in the midst of the storm.

Blessings,
Susan

Barbara said...

I LOVED this analogy, Susan. Very "powerful" ! ! !

Love ya ~ Barb

Susan J. Reinhardt said...

Hi Susan -

I love the way the Lord uses our daily experiences to inspire us!

We're fine here. Mom and I did not lose power. It was mostly a rain/wind event.

BTW - conferences pics are up on my blog. :)

Blessings,
Susan

quietspirit said...

Susan:
Back at the end of February, we had so much rain our side yard resembled a lake. Hubby and I joked about stocking it with fish. One of the older ladies at church got a charge out of our plan.
I'm glad you and your family are all safe.
God takes away our burdens and replaces them with power when we are yoked with Him.

Diane said...

I live in central NY and thankfully, other than a LOT of rain we were unscathed. Other than our sump pump dying, but oh well. :O)

Jeanette Levellie said...

What a great analogy you drew from this story! I'm so glad you are all safe and I hope by now, dry.

It was lovely meeting you in Philly! I appreciate your prayers.

lynnmosher said...

Oh, yes! Sharing the power! Wonderful, Susan!