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? Have you ever found yourself hooking up to people who really didn’t mean you any good?

I was preparing to iron a few shirts, 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 looked at that closely, I noticed that the Lord wants us always to stay plugged up to Him. He wants us to stay hooked up to Him so we can work to the highest level.

So many times in life, we 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 may be still performing on an high level, but when we remain disconnected, we will soon dwindle down to nothing. We can’t remain disconnected and serving the Lord effectively. He wants each of us to have impact in our communities and impact people’s lives in a positive way.

The Lord shares with his disciples to abide in Him. He wanted them to stay in Him by reading the word and praying and fellowshipping with Him. He let them know that it’s so important that 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.

When 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. We can do all things when we’re hooked to Him.

When 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. We must be willing to have daily devotions each and every day.

When 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 more you stay hooked to Him and in Him, you will have a different mindset.

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 hooked up on 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 and our abilities are halted.

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, stay hooked to the source, and when you do, you can heat up anywhere He places you on the ironing board of life. Don’t just stay hooked up; help others to hook up with Jesus.

 

The Rev. Dr. Joseph A. Perry is pastor of St. Mark AME Zion Church. Contact him at josephp134@gmail.com.