May 16, 2023
What Percentage Are You Operating At?
Our family has one of those apps on our phones that lets us know where the other people in our family (group) are – or at least where their phone is at. It has been very helpful sometimes to know where someone is and that the are safe when you cannot always reach them. Also if a phone is lost you can look on the app and locate the phone. (Something that I have had to use more than once when I could not find my phone)
A feature that the app has added is that it will notify you when another person in the group has a low battery on their phone. When anyone in the group’s phone starts getting a low battery life, everyone else gets a notification that this person’s phone is operating on a low battery percentage. A couple of times when I am talking to the person with the low battery, I will say something like, “Hey did you know that your phone battery is almost dead?”
What if everyone else could see what percentage you were operating on Spiritually? What if when you were drifting away from God or you were in a funk spiritually, people that were close to you were notified? WOW. How would we handle it? Would we check on them more often? Would we offer to help charge them up by helping them reconnect with the power source Jesus, so that they could get back to operating in the spiritual realm at the maximum level?
Hopefully we would not criticize them, judge them, or shame them because they were low spiritually. Hopefully we would build that person up and love on them in their time of need. That’s what Jesus would do and what the church should be doing. Hopefully we would pray about it and let God lead us on how to best help charge them back up. Hopefully we would not talk about them behind their back and worst of all – avoid them all together.
Just like a cell phone doesn’t operate on it’s own power but with the power that the battery supplies, we don’t operate spiritually on our own power. Our power source is Jesus through the Holy Spirit living inside of us. The Bible reminds us in John 15:5 Jesus says, “Apart from me you can do nothing” So we must stay charged up by abiding in Him and He in us because the world can drain us of every ounce of energy and strength.
We don’t have a spiritual app that let’s everyone know that our spiritual energy is low. But many times the way that we act (Or don’t act), the things that we say (Or don’t say) let people who are closest to us know that something is wrong and we are not operating at maximum spiritual power. The question is – are we paying enough close attention to those who are struggling?
You will see people and ask them how it is going and they will give you a fake smile and say it’s okay. But if they had a spiritual power meter that we could see, we would see that they are running on a low percentage. This is not judging them or “getting into their business.” This is caring for a Brother or Sister in the Family of God and intentionally helping them get back to where the need to be – attached to the power source-Jesus.
So start looking at others who may be hiding the fact that they are struggling. Lets not be afraid to ask those that we care about, “What percentage is your Spiritual battery operating on?” What a difference it can make when genuinely love one another enough to help others be at maximum power.
In love with Jesus – Gary Mimbs