Real Power

DEVOTION

THE BOOK OF ACTS

REAL POWER

Acts 19:17-20

17 When this became known to the Jews and Greeks living in Ephesus, they were all seized with fear, and the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high honor. 18 Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed their evil deeds. 19 A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas.   20 In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power.

NIV

When the power of God is at work men cannot hide from him. Yet here we see the power of Satan at work beating a men so furiously they ran out in the street naked and bleeding. Although the demon of Satan meant this to show his power, it actually turned men to Christ. If people knew the destructive power of evil in their lives they too would run to Christ. We see here fear seized but the Jews and the Greeks, fear of the power of evil. They even burned their sorcery scrolls. Those who dabbled in the black arts, got rid of all the evidence of their association with them. How many articles that are associated with the black arts are in the homes of people today? We as believers have to make sure we have nothing that could be seen as items of evil practices if so we should burn them as well. We also should recognize the power of evil. Of course we have no need to be seize with fear because of Satan or his demons, as we have the Holy Spirit dwelling within in. The Lord will keep us and protect us from that kind of power, although it is possible God could use us as he did Job to prove to Satan how much we love him and would never forsake him, no matter what. But that still would not be the power of Satan unleashed as it was in this case before us and what it can be like for those who do not know Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Yet the point here is that God is and always be the supreme power at work in his creation. Even the power of evil is used by him to draw people to himself. God and Satan are not two diametrically opposed equal forces at work. The power of Satan is limited and only allowed by God, and as we see here to seize people with fear so they run to Christ.  God could at any time, which he will at some point, crush evil once and for all, by throwing all evidence into the burning lake of sulfur. This act by these people of burning their scrolls of sorcery is a foreshadowing of that event. What we learn here is the real power is in the hand of the Lord.