Ephesians 1:18-23

Ephesians 1:18-23

"I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way."
     So lately, I have really been struggling. I love being in Hot Springs with my family. It has been great to catch up with them and spend time with them. But I have really missed Jonesboro. It is honestly just as much my home as Hot Springs now. I have missed my church family tremendously. I didn’t realize until I came to Hot Springs how much my relationships, particularly with other Godly women, have grown this past semester. I miss those relationships a lot. And of course, I miss Matt terribly as well. It is hard to have to be so far away from all these relationships for a whole summer. I mean, I have put time into these relationships and truly love all those people. And honestly, as I have put more and more into those relationships, I have lost touch with people from Hot Springs. Not in a bad way necessarily, we just aren’t in the same places of life anymore.
   Now that its summer, I have been feeling kind of lost without all these amazing people in my life. The devil has really been using this to give me a negative attitude. Instead of cherishing the time I have been given to spend with my amazing family this summer, I have been bummed about missing my Jonesboro family. But this kind of attitude doesn’t come from God.
   This actually isn’t the first time this type of attitude has come up in my life either. I tend to get pretty stressed out, and when I get to that point, I let this feeling of sadness just take over me. It happened freshman year when I was homesick for Hot Springs, it usually happens at the end of the semester when I am freaking out about finals (just ask the roomies), and now this summer, as I am homesick for Jonesboro. I have gotten pretty good at making excuses for myself. I say things like, “I’m just not a very strong person, stuff like this is overwhelming” or something else that makes it not seem like my attitude is my choice, but the truth is, we choose our attitude in every situation. No one else.
     And really, no matter what we are going through, we can always trust God to come through with that extra bit of power we need to make it. Like it says in the verses above, those of us who believe are included in the riches of his glorious inheritance and have access to his incomparably great power. I think it is easy for us to not realize the true power of these words though. We can say, “Oh yeah, God’s power is incomparable.” But do we truly believe it? I know I don’t.
     Let’s just explore this idea of God’s incomparably great power for a moment. According to Ephesians, this is referring to the power God used to raise Christ from the dead. As humans, we view death as the one thing we have no control over. We have a whole healthcare field of some of the most brilliant minds in the world dedicated to trying to keep people alive, but even they eventually fail. However, God has power that conquers death! What could be greater? Nothing, that’s why its incomparable. Not only does his power conquer death, but it completely controls the present and sets and knows the future. Now this about this verse again. Those of us who are believers have access to this infinitely amazing power! That just blows my mind.
     Your probably wondering where I am going with this, I tend to get a little side tracked when I start thinking about the glory and power of the God that for some reason, chooses to love me, but I will try to bring it all together. The message re-phrases part of those verses like this, : “…grasp the immensity of this glorious way of life he has for his followers, oh, the utter extravagance of his work in us who trust him—endless energy, boundless strength!” Now, when we think about having the power of God within us and how it provides us with endless energy and boundless strength for the life we have in him, who are we to get, pardon the expression, down in the dumps when everything isn’t going exactly how we like it?! God is working HIS extravagance in our lives!!! But when we focus on ourselves, we miss out on that.
     We are still going to have hard times and we are still going to struggle, trust me, the reason I’m writing this is because it is exactly what I am going through right now! The thing is though, that I can trust God. I can trust that he is going to pull me through whatever I am dealing with now and whatever I am dealing with in the future.
I don’t know if any of this connected in anyone’s mind but mine, but it was exactly what I needed right now, so I thought I would share it.