Do you have thoughts of yourself as weak and incompetent? When and about what do you have this kind of thinking?
Knowing Jesus involves receiving the gift of righteousness by faith as we saw yesterday. However, when God justifies us, we are also united to Christ by the Spirit and experience resurrection power. The power of a new life enters us and transforms our love for God, love for others and our entire approach to life. Paul writes,
‘I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.’ (Philippians 3:10-11)
It’s a lie to believe that one can be in a relationship with God and yet not have our lives turned upside down for His glory. If you are a Christian, resurrection power is at work in you! You have all you need to grow and all you need to do all that He calls you to do.
We would be wrong to think of the Spirit’s power in us in a triumphalist manner. Suffering is a part of the normal Christian life because we are called to be like Jesus (as we saw in 2:5-11). However, there is promise in our suffering; suffering according to God’s will, as He leads us, leads to fruitfulness, our transformation and will result in ‘resurrection from the dead’ when Jesus comes again.
RESPONSE
If you are a Christian, the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is at work in you! That’s incredible and so hopeful.
Perhaps you might like to meditate on the words of Paul that speak of knowing the resurrection power we have and that we need to have confidence in.
'I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead…’ (Ephesians 1:18-20