This past Sunday Robbi and I returned home from church to a house without electricity.  With all of the ice and snow that we got, that did not really surprise us.  We estimated that it went out at around 9:00 that morning right after we left for church and we figured that it would be restored in a couple of hours.  We had heard reports of people being without electricity for 72 hours so I thought that I would call to see if they had any idea of when ours would return.  The recording mentioned that they had asked five other electrical co-ops to assist them in making the necessary repairs.  It went on to say that we might want to make plans to relocate to other living accommodations as they had no idea of when it would be restored.  Robbi and I figured we could handle it for a while but as the hours went by we began to think that this was perhaps a little bigger problem than we anticipated.  No electricity in the country means more than no light bulbs.  We had no water because we are on a well.  No water means no washing and no toilets.  No heat because the furnace blower and ignitor require electricity. We could not cook because our cooktop is electric.  Our water heater is electric so there was no hot water.  We had things that were thawing in the freezer and at the same time the house was getting pretty cold.  No TV to watch the Bears game but I guess we did not miss much. Without electricity, everything was thrown out of wack.  No lights in the country with a cloudy sky makes for a really, really dark night.  Robbi and I both mentioned that we could not believe how dark it was, and it was all because we did not have electricity.

I was not able to get much sleep at all because I use a CPAP machine to help me rest so I was awake most of the night.  As I lay in bed, I could not believe how eerily quiet it was.  I could see nothing, and I could hear nothing.  All of a sudden I began to think of what it might be like to be separated from EVERYTHING.  The absence of electricity seemingly separated us from everything.  As I began to think about that I could not help but remember something that I had read early Sunday morning in one of the daily devotionals that I read.  Charles Spurgeon wrote this:

“He who grows not in the knowledge of Jesus, refuses to be blessed.”

How do we grow in the knowledge of Jesus?  How does that happen?  This is not an earth-shattering revelation, but it is something that I believe we need to be reminded of on a regular basis.  The only way that you are going to grow in the knowledge of anyone is to spend time with them.  You need to talk to them and they need to talk to you.  You need to listen.  You need to communicate!  How do we communicate with Jesus?  If you want to hear from Jesus you need to read His Word.  You need to be under the teaching of the Word of God.  You need to hear what He is saying to you and He does that through the preaching, teaching, and reading of His Word.  The second part of communication is talking to Him.  Do you talk to God?  Do you spend time in prayer?

Psalm 23 is a psalm that many of us have memorized.  It is often recited at funerals I believe to give hope to those who remain of where their loved one is.  The psalm is not a funeral psalm; it is a life psalm.  This is a reminder of what life is like when the LORD is your shepherd.  Look at all of the benefits!  Look at all of the blessings!  Not being in need, rest, restoration guidance, lack of fear even in the midst of the mess, the presence of God, peace and provision in the midst of enemies, the goodness and love and mercy of God is guaranteed all the days of your life!  Get that?  Your life!  After this life on earth is over, you are then assured of dwelling in His house forever.  The problem with so many people who call themselves Christians is that they have not grown in their knowledge of Jesus so they do not fully enjoy the blessings of the first 5-1/2 verses of Psalm 23.  They refuse to be blessed!  Why???

Should it be a surprise to anyone that Christians struggle when they are not growing in their knowledge of Jesus?  Their lack of reading the Word and being under the teaching of the Word of God is in fact, their own refusal to be blessed.  Their unwillingness to talk to God about everything, to pray, is in fact their own refusal to be blessed.  Getting back to my story about our electricity outage; should I have been surprised at all about all of the consequences of us not having electricity?  The lack of power messed up everything.  It totally disrupted our lives and I knew what the problem was.  We did not have electricity!  Electricity does not even come close to the level of power that a healthy relationship with Jesus will provide, so, I think you get the picture.  My desire is that each of you might be able to say like the psalmist “Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life…”  Get hooked up to the only true source of power.  Read His Word and pray, pray, pray.