Tuesday: Impotent Instead of Omnipotent
WEEK 3
TUESDAY
IMPOTENT INSTEAD OF OMNIPOTENT
Ephesians 3:20-21
If what I have said about the comparative impotence of the churches in the face of world need seems severe, then note what a medical psychotherapist, J. A. Hadfield, says:
Looking at the Church of today, one cannot but be struck with its powerlessness. It contains men of intellect; it produces a type of piety and devotion which one cannot but admire; it sacrifices itself in . . . beneficence, but even its best friends would not claim that it inspires in the world the sense of power. What strikes one is its sense of impotence and failure. This want of inspiration and power is associated with the fact that men no longer believe in the existence of the Spirit in any effective practical way. They believe in God the Father, and they are reverent; they believe in God the Son, and . . . humbly try to “follow in His steps”; but for all practical purposes they are like that little band at Ephesus who had “not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost,” and lacking the inspiration of such a belief, they are weak and wonder why.*
We repeat the creeds Sunday by Sunday, and say, “I believe in the Holy Spirit”; but for all practical purposes we are about as confused about its meaning as when a little boy, coming back from church, said to his mother, “I understand everything about the creed except one thing: What do they mean when they talk about the ‘Holy Cats in the Church’?” It wasn’t too bad a mistake, for nearly every church has some “holy cats” in it! But seriously, what are we to think of a movement that comes in sight of the ultimate reality for which it is set, then fails to cash in on it? We sell ourselves short by stopping short of the source of mastery and power—the Holy Spirit.
The car of Christianity is beautifully streamlined, the gas tank of potential power full, the road before us; but there is no spark of the Spirit to start it and send it powerfully on its way. It fails at the place of operation; so to all intents and purposes it fails. A Spiritless Christianity is a counsel of perfection, demanding something that cannot be done. It lays an impossible burden on the will, too heavy to bear. But with the Holy Spirit everything is possible. The same power that worked in Jesus works in us with the same quality of results. And it is done so effortlessly. We let the power that works in creation work in us, and we become creative too.
O Holy Spirit, work in me the works of creation, and may I lay a creative hand on everything I touch. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: Through the Spirit of creation I shall become the center of creation today.
* J. A. Hadfield, The Spirit, ed. B. H. Streeter (Macmillan Co., 1919), 109.