Vacuum Cleaner

2 Timothy 1:7 – For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. (ESV)

My wife prefers to iron and I prefer to vacuum: I believe it is a win-win situation.

Once again on a Monday morning I vacuumed the carpets, in a world of my own.

The previous week's outing of the machine had met with a hiatus, just as I was halfway around the house. The vacuum stopped dead. "That's another fine mess you have gotten me into," I remonstrated with the machine, "and I have to go to work." It stood there, stubbornly impassive, avoiding my gaze, so there was no point in discussing it further.

I wiggled the wire — nothing! Being familiar with domestic appliances, I decided to fix it, and after some checking, I removed six inches of the wire and created a fresh connection to the machine. Now, as I vacuumed up the detritus in the carpet, I was impressed with the effectiveness of the newly re-wired machine, and I considered the previous state of the vacuum cleaner.

As the damage to the wire had increased, less power had been able to get through to the motor, until eventually, the link was so weak that it had become totally severed, and no power could get through at all. Likewise, I pondered how followers of Christ, like me, have become fractured and separated from the power of God in our lives — the presence of His Holy Spirit.

If we twist and turn from His will for us, our connection to His power (His Spirit) and His love can become damaged, and the path for His access into us is broken. If we do not heed His warnings, eventually we will become totally burned out, motionless, fearful, and isolated.

Praise God! He is able to restore to us the full power of the Holy Spirit, to make good the channel of His peace, His presence, and His kingdom life.

Prayer: Lord, we are amazed that Your will is to love us and make good in us, once more, that which once was of Your kingdom and of Your Spirit, and has become broken and flawed. Please bring Your power to bear in our lives so that we might be effective implements in Your hands today, because we ask it in and through the name of Jesus. Amen.

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