Who Holds the Power?

My 4 year old was rearranging fridge art the other day and was rather fascinated by the magnets.  After much moving around, she wanted to show me the finished product.  She excitedly exclaimed, "Mommy, look at how those papers are holding the magnets up!"  At first what she said didn't really register.  But then I realized what she said and started explaining that it's not the paper holding the magnets up, but the magnets holding the paper.

I thought it was kind of funny how she thought the paper held the power instead of the magnet.  Yet, her perception of where the power lay is so similar to how we live our lives.  We walk through life all to often unaware of or unwilling to use the power that God has placed in each one of us.  Or worse yet, giving that power someone or something else.

God has placed in us the power to believe in ourselves, believe in who he has called us to be.  Yet our beliefs about who we are become formed by others opinions of us and who they tell us we are.  God has placed in us the power to overcome our past, our mistakes.  Yet we live in bondage to those memories and never fully more forward in life.  God has placed in us the power to live above the addictions and vices in this world, yet we give the power to those things to control our lives.

The list could go on and on of all of the ways we misplace power in our lives.  But the bottom line is, God has placed His power in each of us to overcome anything placed in our paths.  And even when we "give" the power to the "paper" the magnet is still what holds the power.  Even when you or I give power to someone or something else in our lives, through God that power still lies within us.