Have you ever plugged your phone in overnight, confident that you would wake up to a full charge, only to roll over in the morning, hit the power button, and realize your screen is still black? Everything looked fine. The cord was connected, the charger light blinked once, but the battery never actually filled. You thought you were plugged into power, but the current never flowed.
It is a frustrating way to start your day, but a far more tragic way to live your faith.
Many believers today, and much of the modern church, are trying to live for God without ever being connected to His true power source. We have the cords, the routines, the language of faith. Yet when it comes time to live out the hope, courage, and conviction of Jesus, we find ourselves drained, weary, and powerless.
Paul’s words to Timothy echo across the centuries into our own anxious and divided moment:
“Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead.” – 2 Timothy 2:8
That is where the power is found. Not in nations, not in politics, not in personal control or public approval, but in a crucified and risen Savior.
The early church had no buildings, no budgets, and no political clout. Yet they turned the world upside down. Their secret was not a strategy. It was a Source.
In our time, when Christianity is often reduced to a cultural brand or a political banner, we desperately need to rediscover what it means to be connected to the true, living power of Christ. Because when the outlet you are using stops giving juice, you do not blame the phone. You find a new connection.
That is what this moment calls for. It is time for the people of God to reconnect to the power we have ignored.
It is a frustrating way to start your day, but a far more tragic way to live your faith.
Many believers today, and much of the modern church, are trying to live for God without ever being connected to His true power source. We have the cords, the routines, the language of faith. Yet when it comes time to live out the hope, courage, and conviction of Jesus, we find ourselves drained, weary, and powerless.
Paul’s words to Timothy echo across the centuries into our own anxious and divided moment:
“Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead.” – 2 Timothy 2:8
That is where the power is found. Not in nations, not in politics, not in personal control or public approval, but in a crucified and risen Savior.
The early church had no buildings, no budgets, and no political clout. Yet they turned the world upside down. Their secret was not a strategy. It was a Source.
In our time, when Christianity is often reduced to a cultural brand or a political banner, we desperately need to rediscover what it means to be connected to the true, living power of Christ. Because when the outlet you are using stops giving juice, you do not blame the phone. You find a new connection.
That is what this moment calls for. It is time for the people of God to reconnect to the power we have ignored.
Respect the Truth
Paul’s letters to Timothy are personal and urgent. Timothy is a young pastor trying to lead a diverse, fragile church in a culture that is both hostile and confused. The Jewish leaders want them silenced. The Roman Empire wants them controlled. Inside the church, people are splitting hairs over theology and arguing about what it means to follow Jesus.
Paul’s advice cuts through the noise:
“Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead and descended from David.” – 2 Timothy 2:8
In other words, stay grounded in the truth.
The Source of Real Power
Paul is not just talking about a set of doctrines or ideas. He is pointing Timothy back to a Person.
“Remember Jesus.”
Truth is not merely something we believe; it is Someone we follow. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6).
This truth is not an abstract concept to debate; it is a living relationship that shapes everything we do. To remember Jesus is to remember His way, the way of humility, service, mercy, and resurrection power.
In the first century, that was a radical claim. To say “Jesus is Lord” meant that Caesar was not. It was an act of defiance against the empire of fear and violence. It still is. Every time the church confesses that Jesus alone holds the power, we challenge the false gods of our age such as comfort, nationalism, outrage, and control.
The cross looked like weakness. Rome looked unstoppable. But the tomb was empty, and the empire of death lost its grip. That is the kind of power the world still cannot explain.
Faith loses its power when it looks anywhere other than Jesus.
Avoid the Outlets That Drain You
The problem Paul was addressing in Timothy’s church is not so different from ours. They were arguing, battling over interpretations, opinions, and words. Some wanted to go back to the law, clinging to old systems of control. Others swung to the opposite extreme, freedom without responsibility, grace without obedience.
Paul calls it useless and ruinous in 2 Timothy 2:14.
When we fight over words, we mistake noise for power.
Our world rewards outrage. The louder the argument, the more attention it gets. The more clicks, the more validation. Before long, the church begins to believe that the key to influence is volume rather than virtue.
Paul is calling the people of God to something deeper. He is saying, do not plug your faith into the power strips of culture, whether political, social, or ideological, and expect resurrection life to flow.
Outrage can light a spark, but it cannot sustain a flame.
We see this play out every day. Outrage sells. Algorithms feed us what makes us angry, and before long, we are not even surprised by injustice or brokenness anymore. Ecclesiastes 5:8 reminds us not to be astonished when corruption spreads, but the tragedy is that the church often is not astonished at all. We have accepted the world’s ways of doing business as if they were the only way.
When Faith Becomes a Tool
In America today, many Christians have confused the pursuit of spiritual influence with the pursuit of worldly power. We have baptized political platforms, wrapped the cross in flags, and convinced ourselves that if we just win the right elections, we will win the kingdom.
But Scripture never says, “Blessed are the powerful.” It says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.”
Stanley Hauerwas once wrote, “When the Church tries to secure power rather than bear witness to the truth, it forfeits both.”
The church that trades faithfulness for influence loses the very power it is trying to gain.
The world does not need a louder church. It needs a loving one.
Our strength is not found in dominating the culture but in demonstrating Christ. The early believers did not change Rome by force. They changed it by faith. They lived with such integrity, courage, and sacrificial love that even their enemies took notice.
We are called to be that kind of people again, to cut straight, as Paul says, with the word of truth. The phrase literally means to make a straight cut, like a craftsman shaping wood without distortion or shortcuts.
To handle the truth with integrity means refusing to twist Scripture to serve our own side. It means reading it through the lens Jesus Himself gave us:
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.”
If our theology leads us to despise our neighbor, it is not truth; it is idolatry.
If our convictions make us proud instead of humble, we have lost the Spirit’s power.
If our discipleship leads us to ignore the suffering of others because it does not fit our political narrative, we have disconnected from the Source entirely.
Love powers obedience.
The moment love drains out, the lights go dim.
N. T. Wright put it beautifully, “When love and truth meet, we glimpse God’s new creation.”
The power we need is not the kind that wins arguments or controls headlines. It is the kind that resurrects hearts and reconciles enemies.
That power can only flow through those who stay connected to Jesus.
Rest in God’s Plan
When the Israelites were carried into exile in Babylon, they lost everything they thought defined them. Their temple was gone, their land was taken, and their national identity was shattered. They were living in a foreign empire that did not share their values, did not honor their God, and did not care about their faith.
Into that despair, the false prophets started preaching a message that sounded good: “Do not worry, it will all be over soon! God will rescue us any minute now!”
But God had a different message. Through Jeremiah, He tells them:
“Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce… seek the peace and prosperity of the city where I have sent you.” – Jeremiah 29:5–7
It is one of the most astonishing commands in all of Scripture.
God says, in essence, you are not getting out of this any time soon. So start living faithfully where you are.
God’s Plan Is Bigger Than Political Power
Jeremiah delivers a shocking revelation from God:
“This is what the Lord of Armies says to all the exiles I deported from Jerusalem to Babylon.” – Jeremiah 29:4
God says, “I carried you into exile.”
Even in Babylon, God was still in control. He was not bound by geography or government. His plan was still unfolding, even in enemy territory.
This is a truth we need to recover today. God’s kingdom does not rise or fall with political outcomes. His purposes are not limited to favorable policies or majority influence.
The success of God’s kingdom does not depend on who holds office. It depends on who holds your heart.
Israel did not want to be in Babylon. Many believers today feel like we are living in a kind of cultural exile too. We look around and lament how far society has drifted from biblical values. But God’s message still applies. His power is still flowing right here.
You might not be where you want to be, but you can still be connected to Him.
That is good news for anyone who feels spiritually displaced.
Carl F. H. Henry once said, “The early Christians did not say in dismay, ‘Look what the world has come to!’ but in delight, ‘Look what has come to the world!’”
That is the posture of faith. Not despair, but delight in what God is still doing.
Build, Plant, and Prosper
God does not tell His people to wait until they get home. He says, “Do it here.”
Build.
Plant.
Multiply.
Do not waste the waiting.
That is a word for the church today. We spend so much energy lamenting the past or predicting the end that we forget the power of the present.
The call to build and plant in Babylon means we can create beauty, cultivate hope, and nurture life even in hostile soil.
You can build a house of faith in a culture of confusion.
You can plant seeds of peace in a world obsessed with division.
When you do, you become a living testimony that your hope is not in who is in charge. It is in the One who reigns forever.
Seek the Peace of the City
Then comes perhaps the most countercultural command of all:
“Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” – Jeremiah 29:7
God tells His people to bless their captors. To pray for Babylon’s peace. To love the very people who oppressed them.
That is the gospel at work. That is the love that overcomes evil with good.
True Christianity does not conquer by coercion. It persuades through love, humility, and sacrifice. As Brian Zahnd writes, “We persuade by love, witness, reason, rhetoric, Spirit, and, if need be, by martyrdom; but never by force, never by the sword, never by the coercive apparatus of the state.”
The church’s greatest victories have never come from the halls of power. They have come from the hearts of people who chose to love when it cost them something.
When we major on Jesus, we cannot help but show His kingdom. When the outlet is working, when the church is connected to the living Christ, everything around it begins to change. The light shines, the darkness flees, and grace flows outward into the neighborhood.
That is what God wants the church to be, a power source of love, joy, and truth that lights up our communities.
Breaking Free from Political Idolatry
This passage also exposes one of the great temptations of our time, the temptation to put our hope in political power.
It is not a sin to have political opinions or to vote. But it is a sin to let those opinions become idols that replace our allegiance to Jesus.
It is not a sin to care deeply about policy. It is a sin to mock, minimize, or demonize people made in God’s image because they disagree with us.
It is not a sin to support a candidate. It is a sin to excuse evil when it is our side committing it.
It is not a sin to engage in civic life. It is a sin to confuse the flag for the cross.
When the name of Jesus gets invoked at rallies or used as a slogan, we must remember that claiming His name does not make an act Christlike.
Many of those leaving the church today are not running from Jesus. They are running from the hypocrisy that claims His name while denying His heart. They are saying, “Show me the real Jesus.”
That is what the church must do again, reveal the true, unfiltered, self-giving love of Christ to a watching world.
Corrie ten Boom once said, “People may not read the Bible, but they will read your life.”
What story is your life telling? What kind of outlet are you connected to?
Living Power in a Powerless Age
The American church has the resources, technology, and freedom to reach the world like never before. Yet in many ways, it feels powerless. We have programs but lack presence. We have strategies but little surrender. We have structure but not always Spirit.
We have built impressive buildings, but sometimes the light inside flickers. We have developed clever campaigns, but often without compassion.
Respecting the truth means rejecting false power. It means asking, every day, “Am I connected to Jesus, or to something that merely looks powerful?”
When we reconnect to the true source, the current of grace begins to flow again.
Sometimes that current will lead us down paths that feel uncomfortable. The way of Jesus can make us feel powerless or out of control. But in reality, that is where His power is made perfect, in our weakness, not our dominance.
Reflection Questions
The Outlet That Never Fails
Paul told Timothy to remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, victorious over sin and death. Jeremiah told the exiles to seek the peace of the city where God had placed them. Together, these messages remind us that God’s power is not bound by our circumstances, and His plan is not dependent on our control.
When the church forgets that, it becomes like a phone plugged into a dead outlet, connected in appearance but empty in power.
When we reconnect to Christ, everything changes. The energy of grace flows again. Hope flickers back to life. The lamp of love begins to shine.
Faith loses its power when it looks anywhere other than Jesus.
So today, plug back into the only outlet that never fails, the risen Lord who conquered death, who reigns forever, and who invites His people to live as a light in the darkness.
Respect the truth. Rest in His plan. And watch the power of His kingdom flow through you once more.
When we are connected to the right source, the power is not just for us. It flows through us. It charges our faith, lights our communities, and draws others to the life only Jesus can give.
Paul’s letters to Timothy are personal and urgent. Timothy is a young pastor trying to lead a diverse, fragile church in a culture that is both hostile and confused. The Jewish leaders want them silenced. The Roman Empire wants them controlled. Inside the church, people are splitting hairs over theology and arguing about what it means to follow Jesus.
Paul’s advice cuts through the noise:
“Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead and descended from David.” – 2 Timothy 2:8
In other words, stay grounded in the truth.
The Source of Real Power
Paul is not just talking about a set of doctrines or ideas. He is pointing Timothy back to a Person.
“Remember Jesus.”
Truth is not merely something we believe; it is Someone we follow. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6).
This truth is not an abstract concept to debate; it is a living relationship that shapes everything we do. To remember Jesus is to remember His way, the way of humility, service, mercy, and resurrection power.
In the first century, that was a radical claim. To say “Jesus is Lord” meant that Caesar was not. It was an act of defiance against the empire of fear and violence. It still is. Every time the church confesses that Jesus alone holds the power, we challenge the false gods of our age such as comfort, nationalism, outrage, and control.
The cross looked like weakness. Rome looked unstoppable. But the tomb was empty, and the empire of death lost its grip. That is the kind of power the world still cannot explain.
Faith loses its power when it looks anywhere other than Jesus.
Avoid the Outlets That Drain You
The problem Paul was addressing in Timothy’s church is not so different from ours. They were arguing, battling over interpretations, opinions, and words. Some wanted to go back to the law, clinging to old systems of control. Others swung to the opposite extreme, freedom without responsibility, grace without obedience.
Paul calls it useless and ruinous in 2 Timothy 2:14.
When we fight over words, we mistake noise for power.
Our world rewards outrage. The louder the argument, the more attention it gets. The more clicks, the more validation. Before long, the church begins to believe that the key to influence is volume rather than virtue.
Paul is calling the people of God to something deeper. He is saying, do not plug your faith into the power strips of culture, whether political, social, or ideological, and expect resurrection life to flow.
Outrage can light a spark, but it cannot sustain a flame.
We see this play out every day. Outrage sells. Algorithms feed us what makes us angry, and before long, we are not even surprised by injustice or brokenness anymore. Ecclesiastes 5:8 reminds us not to be astonished when corruption spreads, but the tragedy is that the church often is not astonished at all. We have accepted the world’s ways of doing business as if they were the only way.
When Faith Becomes a Tool
In America today, many Christians have confused the pursuit of spiritual influence with the pursuit of worldly power. We have baptized political platforms, wrapped the cross in flags, and convinced ourselves that if we just win the right elections, we will win the kingdom.
But Scripture never says, “Blessed are the powerful.” It says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.”
Stanley Hauerwas once wrote, “When the Church tries to secure power rather than bear witness to the truth, it forfeits both.”
The church that trades faithfulness for influence loses the very power it is trying to gain.
The world does not need a louder church. It needs a loving one.
Our strength is not found in dominating the culture but in demonstrating Christ. The early believers did not change Rome by force. They changed it by faith. They lived with such integrity, courage, and sacrificial love that even their enemies took notice.
We are called to be that kind of people again, to cut straight, as Paul says, with the word of truth. The phrase literally means to make a straight cut, like a craftsman shaping wood without distortion or shortcuts.
To handle the truth with integrity means refusing to twist Scripture to serve our own side. It means reading it through the lens Jesus Himself gave us:
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.”
If our theology leads us to despise our neighbor, it is not truth; it is idolatry.
If our convictions make us proud instead of humble, we have lost the Spirit’s power.
If our discipleship leads us to ignore the suffering of others because it does not fit our political narrative, we have disconnected from the Source entirely.
Love powers obedience.
The moment love drains out, the lights go dim.
N. T. Wright put it beautifully, “When love and truth meet, we glimpse God’s new creation.”
The power we need is not the kind that wins arguments or controls headlines. It is the kind that resurrects hearts and reconciles enemies.
That power can only flow through those who stay connected to Jesus.
Rest in God’s Plan
When the Israelites were carried into exile in Babylon, they lost everything they thought defined them. Their temple was gone, their land was taken, and their national identity was shattered. They were living in a foreign empire that did not share their values, did not honor their God, and did not care about their faith.
Into that despair, the false prophets started preaching a message that sounded good: “Do not worry, it will all be over soon! God will rescue us any minute now!”
But God had a different message. Through Jeremiah, He tells them:
“Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce… seek the peace and prosperity of the city where I have sent you.” – Jeremiah 29:5–7
It is one of the most astonishing commands in all of Scripture.
God says, in essence, you are not getting out of this any time soon. So start living faithfully where you are.
God’s Plan Is Bigger Than Political Power
Jeremiah delivers a shocking revelation from God:
“This is what the Lord of Armies says to all the exiles I deported from Jerusalem to Babylon.” – Jeremiah 29:4
God says, “I carried you into exile.”
Even in Babylon, God was still in control. He was not bound by geography or government. His plan was still unfolding, even in enemy territory.
This is a truth we need to recover today. God’s kingdom does not rise or fall with political outcomes. His purposes are not limited to favorable policies or majority influence.
The success of God’s kingdom does not depend on who holds office. It depends on who holds your heart.
Israel did not want to be in Babylon. Many believers today feel like we are living in a kind of cultural exile too. We look around and lament how far society has drifted from biblical values. But God’s message still applies. His power is still flowing right here.
You might not be where you want to be, but you can still be connected to Him.
That is good news for anyone who feels spiritually displaced.
Carl F. H. Henry once said, “The early Christians did not say in dismay, ‘Look what the world has come to!’ but in delight, ‘Look what has come to the world!’”
That is the posture of faith. Not despair, but delight in what God is still doing.
Build, Plant, and Prosper
God does not tell His people to wait until they get home. He says, “Do it here.”
Build.
Plant.
Multiply.
Do not waste the waiting.
That is a word for the church today. We spend so much energy lamenting the past or predicting the end that we forget the power of the present.
The call to build and plant in Babylon means we can create beauty, cultivate hope, and nurture life even in hostile soil.
You can build a house of faith in a culture of confusion.
You can plant seeds of peace in a world obsessed with division.
When you do, you become a living testimony that your hope is not in who is in charge. It is in the One who reigns forever.
Seek the Peace of the City
Then comes perhaps the most countercultural command of all:
“Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” – Jeremiah 29:7
God tells His people to bless their captors. To pray for Babylon’s peace. To love the very people who oppressed them.
That is the gospel at work. That is the love that overcomes evil with good.
True Christianity does not conquer by coercion. It persuades through love, humility, and sacrifice. As Brian Zahnd writes, “We persuade by love, witness, reason, rhetoric, Spirit, and, if need be, by martyrdom; but never by force, never by the sword, never by the coercive apparatus of the state.”
The church’s greatest victories have never come from the halls of power. They have come from the hearts of people who chose to love when it cost them something.
When we major on Jesus, we cannot help but show His kingdom. When the outlet is working, when the church is connected to the living Christ, everything around it begins to change. The light shines, the darkness flees, and grace flows outward into the neighborhood.
That is what God wants the church to be, a power source of love, joy, and truth that lights up our communities.
Breaking Free from Political Idolatry
This passage also exposes one of the great temptations of our time, the temptation to put our hope in political power.
It is not a sin to have political opinions or to vote. But it is a sin to let those opinions become idols that replace our allegiance to Jesus.
It is not a sin to care deeply about policy. It is a sin to mock, minimize, or demonize people made in God’s image because they disagree with us.
It is not a sin to support a candidate. It is a sin to excuse evil when it is our side committing it.
It is not a sin to engage in civic life. It is a sin to confuse the flag for the cross.
When the name of Jesus gets invoked at rallies or used as a slogan, we must remember that claiming His name does not make an act Christlike.
Many of those leaving the church today are not running from Jesus. They are running from the hypocrisy that claims His name while denying His heart. They are saying, “Show me the real Jesus.”
That is what the church must do again, reveal the true, unfiltered, self-giving love of Christ to a watching world.
Corrie ten Boom once said, “People may not read the Bible, but they will read your life.”
What story is your life telling? What kind of outlet are you connected to?
Living Power in a Powerless Age
The American church has the resources, technology, and freedom to reach the world like never before. Yet in many ways, it feels powerless. We have programs but lack presence. We have strategies but little surrender. We have structure but not always Spirit.
We have built impressive buildings, but sometimes the light inside flickers. We have developed clever campaigns, but often without compassion.
Respecting the truth means rejecting false power. It means asking, every day, “Am I connected to Jesus, or to something that merely looks powerful?”
When we reconnect to the true source, the current of grace begins to flow again.
Sometimes that current will lead us down paths that feel uncomfortable. The way of Jesus can make us feel powerless or out of control. But in reality, that is where His power is made perfect, in our weakness, not our dominance.
Reflection Questions
- What outlets are you most tempted to connect your faith to instead of Jesus? Consider areas like politics, control, approval, or comfort.
- How might you build and plant in your own Babylon? Where can you bring peace, hope, or beauty right where you are?
- When you think of the church’s witness in your community, what would it look like for love and truth to meet more visibly?
The Outlet That Never Fails
Paul told Timothy to remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, victorious over sin and death. Jeremiah told the exiles to seek the peace of the city where God had placed them. Together, these messages remind us that God’s power is not bound by our circumstances, and His plan is not dependent on our control.
When the church forgets that, it becomes like a phone plugged into a dead outlet, connected in appearance but empty in power.
When we reconnect to Christ, everything changes. The energy of grace flows again. Hope flickers back to life. The lamp of love begins to shine.
Faith loses its power when it looks anywhere other than Jesus.
So today, plug back into the only outlet that never fails, the risen Lord who conquered death, who reigns forever, and who invites His people to live as a light in the darkness.
Respect the truth. Rest in His plan. And watch the power of His kingdom flow through you once more.
When we are connected to the right source, the power is not just for us. It flows through us. It charges our faith, lights our communities, and draws others to the life only Jesus can give.
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