We’ve lived in the wonderful home that we’ve rented for four years, which for our family is actually a pretty long stretch. We would stay even longer, but the owners have decided to sell since they live in Seattle and right now, Spokane has quite the hot seller’s market. You may not care about this (you don’t have to move, right?!) but our situation has led to an interesting discovery. As a result of the painstaking task of going through everything thing we own in every room, closet, drawer, cupboard, etc., we found a remote-control garage opener that we never knew existed.

We’ve been lucky enough to rent a home with a three-car garage and two of the spots have one large door that opens and closes with the remote we were given when we moved into the house. Then there’s the third spot with its own smaller door and no remote-control opener, or so we thought. As you’ve probably put together by now, for this entire four years, we have opened and closed that garage door without the convenience of a remote. My wife or I would open the door, pull out the car, stop the car, walk back in and through the garage, close the door, go through the house and out the front door, lock the front door, then get into the car and drive away. When we returned home, if one of our family members was already there, we could text “G” from the driveway to ask someone to open the door and prevent us from having to park the car, unlock the front door, go to the garage, and, well, you get the picture.

FOUR YEARS we have gone without realizing this great power of convenience, this incredible time-saver and hassle-preventer that was right under our noses. This whole deal, while probably hilarious to everyone outside of our family, brings to mind all the of power we have as Christians that we tend to neglect or fail to harness:

• We have the Holy Spirit, and because He is God and has all the power of God, He can help us to overcome our inadequacy and live a life that honors God.
• We have the Bible, the living and active Word of God, that gives us God’s power for salvation among many other things.
• We have the power of the blood of Christ, shed upon the cross, that assures us of God’s power to forgive sin.
• We are God’s children with the power of access to God’s throne in heaven. We can come to God with our prayers, anytime and anyplace, and expect Him to hear and answer.