West Cocoa Chat

I couldn’t help but think about the concept of God’s power this past week. After our “Thank God For Kids Day” on Sunday, I took my son Steven and his friends Zack and Daniel to the beach. The surf was unusually large for our coast coming in at 6 to 8 feet. The boys attempted to surf and I went out to do some body surfing. I was reminded of God’s power when I caught one of the biggest waves I’ve encountered in my attempts to body surf. I knew I was in trouble when I could feel myself going over the lip of the wave as it broke. It literally drove me into the bottom like a piling and then continued to flip me over and over again. When I was finally able to stand up I was amazed at what I had just experienced. I’m still digging out sand from my ears. Any way, I was reminded at how little I am when I compare myself to the power of that wave. I was also thankful to God that I could still stand and dig out the sand in my ear. That’s power. And then last night I experienced another even more powerful type of God’s power, the power of His healing hand.

Greg knows Shannon from our days at Rockledge. Shannon is almost 40 and still single. Shannon is a great guy and he relates well with people of all ages on a casual basis. Shannon came up to me last night just before our classes and asked if Jeff and I would pray for him and anoint him with oil as outlined in James 5? Shannon is suffering from anxiety attacks and is getting ready to start counseling. Unfortunately Jeff couldn’t make it to church last night so I met with Shannon by myself.

Shannon talked about his anxiety attacks and his desire to be “cured” from them. I reminded Shannon that I’m not a licensed counselor nor do I believe that there’s any power in the oil that we were about to anoint him with. But there is "power" in God's Word and His Holy Spirit. So we read from James 5 and talked about one of the benefits of being anointed by the elders with oil was the forgiveness of sin. Shannon confessed that he felt sin had led him into a situation 10 years ago that was now causing him to suffer from anxiety anytime he started a new relationship with a woman.

Just before I prayed with Shannon we both talked about the “power” of the Holy Spirit and how it would be by His intervention that Shannon might begin to feel His healing “power.” When we finished with the prayer Shannon said that he could feel God’s power working in him. For me, that “power” is infinitely more powerful than any wave I might experienced in the ocean. Say a prayer for Shannon.