Is our drawer stuck?

I was on my way from one daughter's house to another daughter's house this evening and stopped at a little convenience store to get a coke. I noticed quite a few people waiting in line and in fact, they appeared to be just standing there. It didn't seem like anyone was moving at all. When I got close enough to the register to hear what was going on, I realized they had a problem. The drawer to the cash register wouldn't open. They could ring up the sales and give you the total, but they couldn't get the drawer to open. They had no access to what was inside - the money... It was almost comical to see all the things they were using to try and pry open that drawer. But no matter what they used or how hard they tried, there was evidently some miscommunication between the register itself and the drawer.

As I left the store, I started thinking about what I had just witnessed. There was a cash register with a drawer full of money. There was a cashier who needed access to that money. Even though the drawer was fully equipped with the right stuff, it was totally ineffective because the right stuff had no way to be used. There was no communication between the register and the drawer. Somehow that connection was missing.

As Christians, if we lack communication with the Father, we are just like that cash register. Completely ineffective. We can fully equipped. We can have full knowledge of Christ. We can have full intentions of being used for His glory. We can even be willing vessels who want to spread the gospel of Christ. But if we haven't established a connection with the power source - if our "drawer is stuck" - we are completely, utterly, fully useless for the advancement of God's Kingdom.

I realize that at times I am just like that cash register. Doing all the right things, working hard to equip myself, but nothing is happening because I have lost that connection. I've unplugged myself from the source of my power. I've taken my eyes off of the one in charge. I am forcing God to have to pry me open to try and get something out of me! Working and being ineffective is just as bad as not working at all.

We have to keep ourselves hooked up to Jesus. We have to make sure that we are not only equipping ourselves, but that we are allowing God to use our equipment. We have to keep the lines of communication with our Lord open. Hear His Word. Do what it says.

"But be doers of the Word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves." (James 1:22)

"For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them."
(Ephesians 2:10)

In the Grip of His Grace,
Beth