If you're looking for some guidance of how to go about living in 2024, I think Paul's letter to the Ephesians is a good place to go. Here we find Paul not only offering sound instruction for faithful living but we’re granted the blessing of overhearing some of his prayers for this early church. We’re given what Professor Sally Brown of Princeton remembers being given to her when she on occasion overheard her parent’s prayers:
“Hearing my parent's prayers,” she writes, “I learned that to them, my brother and I were a sacred trust, worth praying for. The simple fact of their daily praying let me know they recognized their limits as parents. There was so much they could not do for us, so much from which they couldn't shield us. Their praying also told me what they believed about God. They believed they could entrust us to hands stronger than their own, a Love wiser than their own.”
Perhaps by overhearing one of Paul's prayers we can see if some of what Ms. Brown experienced is true for us as well:
“For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches 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 an deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge- that you may be filled to measure of all the fullness of God.
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations for ever and ever. Amen.”
As we listen in, I think we can sense too the “sacred trust,” Paul holds for this church he’s seeking to nurture and encourage. We sense his utter dependence on God, the recognition of his own limits as one of their teachers and leaders and his own faithful knowing that HE alone cannot give this young church everything they need as he points them again and again to lean upon the “fullness of God.”
Writing this letter from prison as he does, knowing that his days are numbered against the insane mind and tortuous dealings of emperor Nero, Paul knows firsthand that he cannot shield his congregation from the brokenness and evil that lurks in the world. He cannot promise them that following Jesus will ensure that nothing bad will ever happen to them. So, what does Paul do? He does what HE CAN DO. He points them to God, to the One who is able to do “immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine.” He reminds them of the POWER AND PRESENCE they DO have to faithfully respond to every worry, every fear, every failure, every suffering they may know this side of heaven. His prayer assures them, that they too can “entrust their hands and lives to those stronger than their own, a Love wiser than their own.”
All this Paul gives to the Ephesian church. But he gives it to us as well. And not just by our overhearing of it. . . .”according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations for ever and ever.” Paul envisioned and believed that the Gospel of Jesus Christ was far reaching. Not only did he believe it was possible for Christ’s saving power to reach beyond Palestine and the Jews, he believed it would be made real for generations to come. In other words, Paul somehow saw and envisioned a time when you and I would gather together in places for the soul purpose to worship and follow Jesus Christ. WOW, that’s something. That’s really something.
Only I do wonder if we struggle to trust “what a SOMETHING” it really is. My sense is that Paul was concerned that the Ephesians were losing sight of all that was now theirs by following Christ. Perhaps knowing up close the hardships and suffering a life of discipleship brings, (the book of Acts records numerous times Paul was beaten- which doesn’t include his imprisonments or being bitten by a viper!!) Paul knew the Ephesians would face their own hardships. . . hardships, that could cause them to trust their circumstances more than the power of the living God in Christ. He knew, perhaps as we know, that while struggle, hardship and loss are a part of our human experience, it can be mighty hard to hang onto our faith in such times. But he also knew that as Christians we serve a God of power and love. So much so, that such power and love can spill over into how we live our own lives. It can help us find ongoing ways to live into our faith, bearing such power and love to one another and the world.
I'm mindful of a story David Roper tells of a friend who had a neighbor who years ago spent most of his spare time planting trees. The man seldom watered the young trees because he thought that too much watering spoiled them. (He came from the "no pain, no gain" school of plant care.) Pampered trees, he said, made for shallow roots, and deep roots were something to be treasured. The friend told David that he often walks by the old place and looks at the trees his neighbor planted 25 years earlier. They're rugged, strong, and durable now. Tall and tough. Adversity and deprivation seem to have benefited them in ways that being sheltered and pampered couldn't.
"All of this," David reflects, "makes me think about the way I pray for others. I'm inclined to pray that God will spare my family and friends from hardship, but lately I've changed my praying. I don't ask for an easy life for them, for that may not come in this world. Instead, I try to echo the prayer of the apostle Paul for the believers in Ephesus (3:14-19). I ask that their roots will go down deep into the love of God—experiencing a close relationship with Him—so they'll grow up sturdy and strong. Then when the winds of adversity blow, they won't be swept away but will stand tall as a testimony of faith." With God's eternal help, may it be so, dear friends. Oh, may it be so.
Epiphany Blessings, Leslee
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