By Joseph Perry

“If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” John 15:7

Do you really know where your power comes from?

I was preparing to iron a pair of pants, so I had to plug the cord into the power outlet. When I plugged the cord in and turned the iron on, it started heating up to do what I needed it to do. When I thought about that more, I realized that the Lord wants us to always stay plugged up to Him. He wants us to stay connected to Him so we can work to the highest level.

So many times in life, we have become disconnected from the source of life. We have allowed people, places or things to cause us to disconnect. When we separate ourselves from the Lord, we can become ineffective. It doesn’t matter how it feels while we are disconnected, and we may be still performing on a high level, but when we remain disconnected, we will soon dwindle down to nothing. We can’t remain disconnected and serve the Lord effectively. He wants each of us having impact in our communities.

The Lord shares with His disciples to abide in Him. He wanted them to stay in Him by praying and fellowshipping with Him. He let them know that it’s so important, it would be the make-or-break of their ministry.

When they abide in him, then they are abiding ultimately in the God of creation. He is the one who controls it all. The Giver and Preserver of life. We are only His branches who are connected to Him. As long as we are connected to Him, we can ask anything in life, and the Father will give it.

4When we are connected to the Lord, our lives aren’t the same. He does in us that which we could not do only from ourselves.

4When we are connected to the Lord, our thoughts aren’t the same. When we seek His thoughts by reading His word and praying His word, we think differently.

4When we are connected to our Lord, all we desire is what He wants for us. He changes what we wanted in life to whatever He wants to do, and as long as He wants to do it.

The Lord wants the very best for each of us. That’s why he does whatever is necessary to keep us going, to keep us producing, because He wants to pour into our lives the very best. He loves us so much that he wants us to stay connected to Him, the one who is our source.

The same way Jesus would come in the world and do the work He was assigned to do, we must forever stay connected to the Lord to do the work He assigned us to do.

Just like the iron, it had no impact until it was plugged up. It was an iron, but no power. We are powerless until we are plugged into the true source. There are a lot of so-called sources in our world where we feel, if we lose that connection, our lives, our abilities come to a halt. But our true source, even after those other sources no longer exist, will still keep you producing in a way that still gives God the glory. Stay connected to the source, and when you do, you can heat up anywhere He places you on the ironing board of life.

The Rev. Dr. Joseph A. Perry is pastor of St. Mark AME Zion Church. He can be reached at josephp134@gmail.com.