Power Struggle

Psalm 33:16–22 (NLT) — 16 The best-equipped army cannot save a king, nor is great strength enough to save a warrior. 17 Don’t count on your warhorse to give you victory— for all its strength, it cannot save you. 18 But the Lord watches over those who fear him, those who rely on his unfailing love. 19 He rescues them from death and keeps them alive in times of famine. 20 We put our hope in the Lord. He is our help and our shield. 21 In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. 22 Let your unfailing love surround us, Lord, for our hope is in you alone.
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Friedrich Nietzsche, the German philosopher, believed that underneath everything we do our ultimate drive is the will to power.

Everyday life, going to work, getting married, having kids, joining clubs, all of it is at bottom a struggle to gain more power. Is he right?

That certainly seems true for a lot of people that I know...including myself.

Is that all there is to life?

Verses 16 & 17 seem to be saying that there is more...or at least implying that there is more to this life than chasing after power.

The thing that pisses people off about Christianity is that it's backwards. It's like you're told you're going to a great party that's been really hyped up so you're expecting the social elites to be there, then when you show up it's really just party with homeless looking, smelly people.

You think, "this is it?! I don't want to be seen with these people!"

You see with Christianity you never gain any power unless you give it up. It's backwards!

What do I mean?

In our American culture we're told that if we work hard, if we study hard, then we can eventually through blood, sweat and tears become powerful. Christianity says that it's only when you realize that you aren't powerful do you actually gain power.

No one shows this better than Jesus himself. If Jesus really is God you would certainly expect him to make a much grander entrance into his creation wouldn't you? But he didn't...instead He gave up power and submitted to the only who does have ultimate power (God) and in turn that's what gave him power!

Philippians 2:6–11 (NLT) — 6 Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. 7 Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, 8 he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross. 9 Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

You see we spend our whole lives grasping for power. We want to take our desires and make them into reality...that's what power is. We spend our whole lives trying to closer the gap between our "wants" and our "reality." Only one person truly has that power, the power to take a want or thought and make it reality and that's God. 

We spend our whole existence striving to be God and have nothing to show for it. But Jesus, though He was equal with God gave up the divine privileges and became humbled even to die a filthy, naked, shameful death of a criminal. It's because He gave up power, it's because He submitted to the only one that has true power that He in turn was exalted.

"he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross. Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names"
Christianity is like that party with the dirty smelly people because in order to enter you first have to realize that you're dirty and smelly to! There's aren't any "elite" people, we're all broken, we're all messy! If you believe yourself to be elite, or you are striving to be seen as elite then this a party you wouldn't want anything to do with it! 

We want to earn it, we want to perform well and earn God's praise and entrance into His kingdom. What we don't want to do is admit that we are and never would be worthy to enter...but that's what it actually takes to gain entrance!

When it comes down to it what does a Christian trust in? It's not his moral performance, it's not his money, it's not the size of his army or his strength like the text says..

"Let your unfailing love surround us, Lord, for our hope is in you alone."

“While men and women have put themselves in God’s place and tried to take prerogatives only God deserves, God in his infinite love has put himself in our place and taken upon himself that which only we deserve. We tried to be God, and we have failed. God sought to become human, and he succeeded. He became human. He was incarnated. He was born here. He was Jesus Christ, and he died on the cross to pay the penalty for our power grabbing.”

A Christian is somebody who begins to realize the root of all of his or her problems has been our power-grabbing against God for years. A Christian is somebody who looks into the heart of God through the gospel. The gospel is that he died for you, that he’s committed to you, that he puts his life on the line, that he’s cut off from the land of the living. That’s his unfailing love."¹

That's the only real way to gain power is to submit to the ultimate power who is Jesus Christ. When the cards are on the table your life is on the line somehow, your job, your accomplishments, all of it...they're powerless to save you. Only Jesus has the power to save you and He's already shown that death is no biggie for Him.

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¹Keller, Timothy. "The High and Loft One; His Majesty." Oct 11, 1992.