SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/17/2019
7:35 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 “The Lord’s Glory”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Eph. 3:20-21
Message of the verses: “20 Now to Him who
is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to
the power that works within us, 21 to Him be the glory in the church and
in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.”
At
the end of our last SD I promised that I would quote from the commentary of
John MacArthur to help us understand these last two very important verses in
the book of Ephesians.
“There
is no situation in which the Lord cannot use us, provide we are submitted to
Him. As is frequently pointed out, verse
20 is a pyramid progression of God’s enablement: He is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond
all that we ask; He is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask
or think. There is no question in the
minds of believers that God is able to do more than we can conceive, but too
few Christians enjoy the privilege of seeing Him do that in their lives,
because they fail to follow the pattern of enablement presented in these
verses.
“Paul
declared that the effectiveness of his own ministry was that ‘my message and my
preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the
Spirit and of power’ (1 Cor. 2:4), because ‘the kingdom of God does not consist
in words, but in power’ (4:20).
Throughout his ministry the apostle was concerned about ‘giving no cause
for offesenses in anything, in order that the ministry be not discredited, but
in everything commending ourselves as servants of God, in much endurance, in
afflictions, in hardships, in distresses, in beatings, in imprisonments, in
tumults, in labors, in sleeplessness, in hunger, in purity, in knowledge, in
patience, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in genuine love, in the word of
truth, in the power of God’ (2 Cor. 6:3-7).
Everything Paul did was in the power of God, and in the power of God
there was nothing within the Lord’s will that he could not see
accomplished. That same power works
within us by the presence of the Spirit (Acts 1:8).
“When
by our yieldedness God is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond ‘all that we
ask or think, according to the power that works within us,’ only then are we
truly effective and only then is He truly glorified. And He deserves ‘glory in the church and in
Christ Jesus,’ not only now, but ‘to all generations forever and ever.’ The ‘Amen’ confirms that worthy goal.”
It
is my desire that this quotation will not only help us tie up the things that
we have been learning, not only in the prayer Paul is praying, but also in the
first three chapters of the book of Ephesians.
Paul taught us many things in the first two and a half chapters of
Ephesians, and then he prayed for us to be able to apply these things that we
are learning, and will then talk more about what we have learned as we begin
the fourth chapter of Ephesians. This is
a very exciting adventure.
Today’s quotation: “I do not know how much you ought to
give. I am afraid the only safe rule is
to give more than we can spare.” (C. S.
Lewis) We will look at the Bible verse that goes along with this quote in our
next SD.
2/17/2019 7:52 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment