Now that my surgery, rehab, Covid, and hurricane Ian are over and passed, and the summer is gone, it’s time to concentrate on what is really important and get on with living. At least, it seems that the exigencies of life will once more allow me to live.
Ephesians 3:17 is today’s verse. Even while I have storm shutters to remove today, floors to wash, hurricane readiness kit contents to put away, stuff from outside to put back outside once again, a daughter whose house still has no power camping out on my sofa, and a yard that’s a mess, I can look at today’s verse, turn the page on the trivialities of a messy house and say the temporary can now be ignored for one more day, and I can press the reset button.
I can once more write first thing in the morning. I can spend time in prayer. I can work on my sister’s book and enter poetry in the latest contest. But, foremost, I can do what Ephesians 3:17 tells me to do. This will fuel all the other endeavors I’ve postponed the last four months of my life while surgery and illness have sidelined me and governed my priorities. I want to serve and not be the object of concern, and the impetus is in the verse sitting on my daily calendar on my desk.
Here it is: “I ask Him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you’ll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus, the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth. Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the height! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.” This is the Message translation.
Perhaps the more familiar to my experience:, the NIV: “Kneel before the Father, from whom His whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name, pray that out of His glorious richness, He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts, through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge–that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”
I love the conclusion of this chapter, the benediction part. This is what will fuel my feeble attempts at accomplishment this fall as we lean into Advent and the birth story of Christ. Without the Prince of Peace’s presence in this fallen world, we would indeed be in a terrible place. Let this benediction bless your life today as it has mine already. “Now, to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work in us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever, Amen.”
Doesn’t this urge you, along with my lately discouraged spirit, to press forward to what is important? I know I need to recharge my spiritual batteries.
This week in our church is Missions Week. We are concentrating on the over sixty churches we’ve helped to plant in all corners of our world. Right now, our home church is without a home. We are building a new church building, yes, planting our own. We are a movable church in borrowed facilities, our resources scattered, our people challenged to carry on ministry. We are our own mission church right now. It brings challenges. But we will live through the land clearing, the ten acres of mud, the problems with permits, the cancellation of our missions dinner with speakers and encouraging messages from far regions where facilities are few and persecution is often present. Now, if ever, we need the encouragement of Paul who was writing to the Ephesians and speaking to my heart even today. We are hearing horrid statistics in my state of Hurricane Ian’s destruction, political enmity, lack of leadership at the national level, rumors and actual war, foolish promises to world leaders that we will never fulfil, and financial instability.
Today I lay all at the feet of Jesus as I pray: “Lord, help me to understand the full height, depth, width, and all dimensions of Your love and direction. Pick up the pieces of my life that have taken precedence these past few months, especially the health concerns. I thank you for partial recovery which now allows me to look forward. I thank you for all who have ministered to me with their God-given talents and attention, and pray I may now begin to take the baby steps and the giant leaps to serve You as I go forward to this new season of the year and the next portion of the life you give me. Help me to run the race, if only falteringly, to serve Your kingdom and to concentrate on the things above rather than the temporary mortal world that surrounds me with concerns. I lay all of these troubles to the Lord of the Universe so that I can walk closer to Your direction going forward to the next season of life. In Jesus’ precious Name. Amen.”
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