The bible says,
"God has not given us the spirit of fear but of POWER, and of love, and of a sound mind" 2 Timothy 1:7.
The American Heritage® Dictionary defines "POWER" as strength or force capable of being exerted. Power is Effectiveness; it is the ability or capacity to perform effectively. Thus, according to this passage in 2 Timothy, God has given each of us strength to be effective; strength which is capable of being exerted. He has given us the spirit of love, the spirit of a sound mind and the ability to perform effectively. We have been given an unlimited amount of POWER from an all powerful God; enough power to face any circumstance and overcome any obstacle.
Yet, when an emotional situation arises in our life, it somehow erases all of this power that we spend so much time building confidence in. We suddenly feel powerless.
An emotional situation results when a combination of circumstances at a given time is determined or actuated by your emotions rather than reason. Bad news or a bad event usually instigates an emotional situation. You hear the news and your emotions take over your perception of the situation. Suddenly the smooth progression of your life takes an emotional turn for the worse. Where there was once positive momentum to press forward, now swelling emotional forces begin to drive you backward into despair with an inability to regroup. Your spirit of sound mind has left you. You strength is gone; you are unable to be effective. You're powerless.
Most of us blame powerlessness on the initiator. We make this case in our minds,
"if he/she would just do this... " or "if he/she would not have done that... "
This is because our minds substantiate the emotions that we feel. In other words, your mind sees clearly that there was no turmoil before the event took place; however, after the event, there was unrest so the cause is verified. The event or the person must be the reason you feel powerless. It's that person's fault; he/she has taken away your power.
But blame is not the answer. You will never reclaim your power this way. Blame will only keep you engulfed by the miserable emotion in a vicious cycle of replaying the event in your mind and reiterating your position to yourself as if the other person could hear you. At the end of the day, you'll find yourself drained, still searching for answers and spiraling into anger and resentment towards who ever seems to be the source of the disturbance. Too many Christians are satisfied to search only for someone to blame when we feel powerless. As a result, Christians, even though we sing about a powerful God, are emotionally bound... , stuck... , stranded... , trapped in recurring situations of apparent powerlessness that have been repeating for years.
The solution is less complicated than it may seem. The answer to powerlessness is in 1 John 4:4, which says
"You are of God... , and have overcome them: because GREATER IS HE THAT IS IN YOU, THAN HE THAT IS IN THE WORLD".
When situations leave you in a state of powerlessness, you must realize that God is greater than that situation and He is IN YOU! What you need is a transfer. Allow me to explain...
At your bank, if one of your accounts has more funds in it than another of your accounts, you can remove the funds from the one account and transfer them to the other at any time. It's called a transfer-of-funds; you can even do it online now days. Well, you can perform this same type of operation emotionally; you can make a transfer of power. When you feel powerless, it means that in your mind the circumstance you are facing holds more power over you than you have over it. This situation, which should not be much of a predicament, seems terrible, even life threatening because of the amount of emotion attached to it. In your mind, the circumstance is substantiated, it is considerably more powerful then you.
To make a transfer, you have to realize that the situation only appears larger than you because your emotions are so substantial, but on the inside of you is perpetual power, i.e. GOD HIMSELF who can put the situation back into perspective. When you conduct a transfer, you defuse the situation in your mind by understanding that on the inside of you is more power than any situation. You can shrink the problem in your mind by realizing God is the greatest power. Victory over any situation only requires that you change your mind. Transfer the power out of that situation.
Critical point: In order to complete a transfer-of-funds from a bank account, you must clear identify which account the funds will be transferred to. It's not enough to just remove funds from an account then hang up the phone. You must complete the transaction. Likewise, when you transfer power from an emotional situation, you must clearly understand where the power is going. The pressure and stress that you remove from that situation must land somewhere. If you don't correctly identify where the weight of that problem lies, you will find yourself in the same predicament again the next day. You must understand to which account you are transferring the power to. You don't want to make the mistake of saying,
"I am more powerful than the situation... "
If you do then you've missed the point. You couldn't handle it alone before, you can't handle it now.
I submit to you today that God is the only one who can handle the power that your dilemma holds over you. He can accept that pressure, He can handle the stress. He can take that pain from your situation because He is greater than every situation. 1 Peter 5:7 says
"Cast all your care upon Him; for he careth for you".
God can shrink that overwhelming monstrous situation to the size of a mouse. God's account is the only one large enough to handle the transfer from your situation, and my situation, and your momma's situation, and your daddy's situation, from your pastor's situation, from this world's situation. Jesus says cast all your cares on Him, He cares for you.
The next time you feel powerless, perform a transfer! Say loud and clear,
"Lord, I'm transferring all this anguish; all this anger; all the hurt and all the stress I am feeling to your account. You take the despair, you take the resentment, you take the pain from this dilemma, and I'm transferring it all to you now! My emotional account balance is ZERO. Provide me with peace. Give me the confidence to press forward and be powerful once again!"
