Focus: Take Charge! (Pt.1)

Text: Eph.3:20b

"According to the power that worketh in us."

Life is worth living, especially for those who are willing and determined to take charge of it. Life is worth living for the child of God who understands his place in Christ, and who knows that God has given him the power to make this life worth living, not only for himself, but also for those around him. 

The Scripture makes this truth abundantly clear. John writes, "But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name" (Jh.1:12). The right, privilege, or authority to become a child of God is conferred on you by God the moment you are born again by the Holy Spirit into God's kingdom or let Christ into your life by faith. 

That power is more than ability to make things happen; it is the authority to take charge and influence things in God's world.

In addition to the God-given authority, our text says that you have operating within you a God-given dynamite. You are loaded with power - power to endure, to overcome, to love, to serve, and to reign in this life. This power is a living reality inside of you. You have an efficient and effective power-plant inside you. Energy is surging in you. You have been well enabled and properly activated by God for maximum impact on any soil and in any space you find yourself in God's world. Paul makes bold to say, "Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power" (Eph.3:7). Look at that - "the effectual working of his power." The power was working in Paul; it was not lying dormant. The energy-plant in Paul never knocked engine. No, not at all. It was power that enabled him to become whatever God wanted him to become and actualize God's purpose for his life. Paul confidently declares that we are being "strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power" (Col.1:11). Paul is heaping power upon power in order to help us conceive or imagine the exceeding greatness of God's energy available to those in Christ.

Child of God, stop living with a defeatist mindset! Rise up and take charge of your life! Stop letting the circumstances of life push you around, sap you of your God-given energy, and render you ineffective.

Choose to live! Choose to win! Choose to stay on top on things! I know life can be tough and rough, but don't let what is under the feet of Christ be above your head. Vance Havner, the church historian, says that "life is a series of choices between the bad, the good, and the best. Everything depends on how we choose." Therefore, in this new month, ensure that you:

*Make God's word your norm and bond

*Acknowledge God's sovereign presence

*Revere God's glorious name

*Crown Christ the Ruler of your whole life

*Hail and honor Christ as your one and only Sovereign

By the way, that is one of my acronyms for the month of MARCH, and that is how to take charge - by letting God be God and making Him the center and circumference of your life.

No one can successfully take charge of life without acknowledging the God-factor as the all-important factor of his or her life. Indeed, God is top priority for those who take charge of this life.

by Bishop Moses E. Peter