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14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. 16 I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, 17 and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. 18 I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 20 Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. (Ephesians 3:14-21 NRSV)
Happy Tuesday, ConCafe Familly! May the joy of the Lord be your strength today and all days, dear Friend, is my prayer. May our prayers continue for the needs of those shared with us; pray for one another, and pray for yourselves and your personal needs.
I once heard a professor describe the differing modes and stances of prayer. He said that some believers pray on their knees with heads bowed and eyes closed. This is a custom in the West. In the East, believers stand and raise their hands in prayer. And Americans, he said, sit and have their hands in the pockets playing with their car keys! (This is a joke! Though truthfully when I first heard it thought he was being a bit dangerously close to insulting some of us in that class!)
Paul was a man of prayer and his stance was to humble his body and his heart while kneeling in prayer. He was also a man who listened as he prayed, and after he prayed. It was through prayer that he was nurtured and strengthened, and he gained wisdom and knowledge. He acknowledges God the Father as our source of life and all things, thus the reference to our taking our name from God, as do the people in heaven and on earth. If we truly taught and lived that, imagine the harmony we would enjoy as believers and cirizens. Paul's tremendous prayer was that all who believe and call on the Lord would be strengthened in our inner being with power through His Spirit. And this in turn would bless us for having Jesus in our hearts through faith, and all the while we are "being rooted and grounded in love."
Our home came with a flower bed with nice flowers that lasted maybe a good part of our first couple of years. Somehow, wayward grass and a great variety of weeds made their unwanted appearance in our flower bed. For three years or so, Nellie and I would vainly pull all sort of muscles in our body trying to dig up and root out weeds and the wayward grass. I learned that weeds, for the most part, have very little roots. As a weed is starting its growth in unwanted places it is easy to pull and discard. The last few years has brought to our flower bed, the dreaded and very ugly clumps of crabgrass. This menace grows really tall really fast, and it's an eyesore. Finally, a couple of Saturdays ago, our son-in-law Eric, came and re-did the flower bed in the proper way. We laid a mesh weed block, and planted on it new regional flowers and supported them with mulch. The weeds and the plants showed me the importance of roots. It is from and through roots that we are able to receive the nutrition and sustenance we need; and if we allow our spiritual and emotional roots to be in love, imagine the "flowers" that would bloom. If we would allow our minds to be grounded in love as well, how awesome would be our thoughts and actions! In reality, all who surrender their lives to Jesus should be, as Paul is describing, people of love and service to the Lord Unfortunately, the recent trend for the Christian church has shown that love is missing from many of its actions and decisions; and the church is not addressing the issues and root evils in our society as it once did, and efforts to revive those efforts are met with criticism and disdain. And while, most of us cannot control the actions of the Church, we can however, control and correct our actions to those of love and a grounding in Christ Jesus. We should set as our goal to glorify God and imitate Jesus. But if instead of roots in love, you know your roots are in hate, what do you expect will grow and sprout from your mind, mouth, and methods? If your roots are in apathy, what will grow and bloom as a result? We know full well just what we will see. Jeremiah in his book mentions what David mentioned in the psalms; "7 Blessed are those who trust in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. 8 They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream. It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves shall stay green; in the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit." (Jeremiah 17). If our trust is in the Lord and we make our decisions based on that trust, we will do the right thing and we will live in the right way. The prophet had studied those trees along streams; if a tree could fear, it wouldn't fear heat (Hear that Texas trees?); it also would not worry about its leaves because they would stay green thanks to its roots in the stream, and droughts would not make it anxious, and it would always bear fruit. The earlier verses in that same chapter speak of a different result. Those who place their trust in humans and not the Lord would live as shrubs in the desert, and never see relief; the dryness of the drought would also be the dryness of their soul, and it would never bear fruit. If you live in Texas or in dry, arid places and the sun loves to shine brightly, you already know what the prophet is talking about. I saw some Seguin lizards shopping at our Walmart looking for sandals with which to beat the heat! They had to settle for little paper umbrellas and tiny sunglasses!
The choice is up to us and how we seek to live our lives. We should seek to live as imitators of Christ Jesus, modeling our lives after that of our Savior. I believe most of us had earlier times as children, when we modeled our lives after someone in a hobby or career that we aspired to; and we watched their every move, the stances they may have taken before batting, or shooting a free throw, or wearing what they wore; all in hopes that that would bring us that much closer to them and the life they lived. The notion of imitating Christ is a radical action where we put aside our once aggressive drives for money, power, success, fame; and replace them with what Paul discovered count for eternal rewards; love, compassion, kindness, tolerance, empathy, service, and the list goes on with all the loving and positive things we could do and show for others. The goal is to show Christ in us each day in a genuine way so that that may please God and bless God's people.
PRAYER: Loving Father, bless us in our daily lives with the ways we can be just like Your Son, Jesus. We know the world hungers for Him and our doing our part will bring Him to life in us and bring countless blessings to our situations. This is our desire and we pray in Christ Jesus' strong name, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord! Pray endless prayers for wisdom and boldness.
Receive my blessings of joy and peace,
Pastor Eradio Valverde
