Day 20 | Divine Potential

We moved to Reno several years ago from the Carolinas. Though we love living here, I do miss the trees back east. There are so many trees that at times, you feel claustrophobic. The Carolinas are known for their pine trees, but there is also an incredible amount of oak trees. At certain times of the year, the oak trees would drop their acorns and the ground becomes covered with them. So much so that when you would walk, the ground would crunch under your feet. 

Acorns were everywhere and most people never really notice them. We look right past them and never give them a second thought. But do you know that inside those tiny, insignificant things, there is an incredible amount of potential? Inside an acorn, there is divine power and unique gifting placed there by God. Inside an acorn, there is a story that is waiting to be written. If an acorn finds its way into the ground, and if the temperature is right and it gets the right amount of water, this acorn will produce a tender little shoot. Over the next 10, 20, 50, or 100 years … that tender shoot will grow and develop into a beautiful, majestic oak tree that will produce thousands of acorns in its lifetime. All of that beauty, all of that strength, and all of that life begins with a tiny, insignificant, unnoticed acorn.

You’ve probably never thought about it, but we are a lot like an acorn. Inside each and every one of us, God has placed an incredible amount of unrealized, unrecognized potential. Inside each of us, there is a story that has yet to be written. You may feel insignificant and unimportant, but when God looks at you, He sees you differently than how the world sees you. He doesn’t see you for who you are now; he sees you for what you can be.

If there was anyone who could truly see people and unleash their potential, it was Jesus. Jesus looked beyond the physical and he saw the spiritual potential in people. The Bible is packed full of stories of unnoticed, under-valued people who met Jesus, and Jesus saw something special… something valuable in them. People like Zacchaeus, the woman at the well, and even Peter. Peter was a blue-collared fisherman that Jesus said in Matthew 16:18, “And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock, I will build my church and the gates of Hell will not overcome it.” I cannot help but wonder, what would have happened to all of these people if they never came into contact with Jesus? Where would they have ended up if no one ever said, “I see incredible potential in you”?

This week, as we are focussing on making a difference with our lives, I want to remind you that just like an acorn, God has placed divine potential and unique gifting inside of you. But potential alone is not enough. Potential must be exposed to and unlocked by God’s power. When the potential that is in each of us meets the life-changing power of God, something world-changing, something earth-shaking, something cataclysmic happens. When our potential meets God’s power, we say “Oh, I get it now. I understand. That’s why I went through that. That’s what he was preparing me for.”

Do you know who you are? Do you know what you are capable of? Do you know what we could accomplish together? The church is filled with unlimited possibilities because this church is comprised of people full of divine potential. I want to leave you with a passage of scripture out of Isaiah.
 
The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captive, and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn and provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.
Isaiah 61:1-3

I pray that I grow, and my roots go down deep, and my branches stretch up towards the sky as I fix my eyes heavenward and look to the Son. I pray that seeds of hope, encouragement, and healing will drop out of my life, and the glory of God and the love of Christ will emanate from my life and affect those around me. I pray the same for you.

Pastor Greg Carr