Use Your Power to Defeat Abuse of Power

You have more power than the president. Although Christians often feel powerless in the face of hostile political acts, we have more power than national leaders because we have access to one who is more powerful than they are. If we could remember that, we would be more prayerful and less angry; we’d be less frustrated and more composed.

We see abuse of power everywhere today. It occurs in courthouses, government buildings, corporate offices, schools, and churches. We experience it online and within our own families. How do we respond to abusers of power? We begin by acknowledging their power.

The King Is Powerful

There are many verses in the Bible that describe Solomon’s great power as king of Israel (1 Kings 1–9). As head of state, he also frequently encountered other national leaders, both friendly and hostile, with similar vast power (1 Kings 1–10). He, therefore, saw and felt the impact of power upon the possessor of it and upon those who were under it, both for good and evil. For example:

• The powerful can do great good (Prov. 3:27).
• The powerful distribute both great rewards and great punishments (Prov. 14:35).
• The powerful have great influence for good and evil (Prov. 20:8).
• The powerful need great mercy and great truth (Prov. 20:28).
• The powerful establish justice (Prov. 29:4).

Solomon realized how much power impacted him, other leaders, and the people they led, and therefore reminded himself and others of how leaders should exercise their power.

Much power means much potential for much good and much evil.

So what do we do when the powerful abuse their power? We go to someone who is more powerful.

The King of Kings Is More Powerful (21:1)

However much power national leaders have, the Lord is more powerful. “The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will” (21:1). Just as an engineer can redirect a stream with one scoop of a digger, so the Lord can redirect a king’s heart with one easy touch. The Lord can turn a king’s desires, thoughts, aims, loves, plans, words, and actions, as easy as power steering. He can do it directly by working in his heart, mind, and conscience, or indirectly through events and circumstances.

We’ll probably never have direct access to our national leaders. We’ll probably never be in the Oval Office or the Situation Room or Camp David. We’ll never sit beside the president in his limo or on Air Force One. But the Lord is not only in these rooms, vehicles, and planes, but is in the leader’s heart, ruling it, turning it, changing it, whenever he wants and however he wants.

The president may think he is in total control and subject to no one else, but his heart is in the Lord’s hand. It may be a mighty heart, a determined heart, or a devilish heart, but it’s just like a little stream in God’s mighty hand. He can change its direction in a moment.

We don’t need an earthmover when we have a heart mover.

Changing Our Story with God’s Story

Paul reminds Timothy that Jesus is “the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen” (1 Tim. 6:15–16). Paul turns this fact into an act of worship.

We see how extraordinary Jesus was in laying down his power and submitting himself to weakness and evil abuses of power in order that we might be powerfully delivered from the greatest abuser of power there’s ever been.

Summary: How do we respond to abuses of power? Ask the most powerful one to powerfully redirect that power to good, gospel ends.

Question: Which leaders—local, national, and international—will you pray for today?

Prayer: All-Powerful God, I am weak and my leaders are strong, but you are stronger. Redirect and re-channel their hearts so that they exercise power for the good of others, just as you do.