The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"To Us, Within Us"
"I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of His power" (Ephesians 3:7).
The Apostle Paul well knew his calling to serve God and others depended on a power from above that had wondrously found a place in his heart and life. Paul referenced this in two prayers included in his epistle to the Ephesians:
"The exceeding greatness of His power to us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead" (Ephesians 1:19-20).
"Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us" (Ephesians 3:20).
The same power that raised the Lord Jesus from the dead came to us through the Holy Spirit when we believed, so much so that it dwells within us through the Spirit. This refers to a reality that must be believed and affirmed by faith amid the challenges of human weakness all believers in the Lord Jesus feel and experience.
"But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us" (II Corinthians 4:7).
We do well to join Paul in praying for each other and for ourselves that we will grow in the knowledge of both the power of God and the weakness of our earthen vessel. Our Lord's standards for life and service to Him and others far transcends our human capacities. However, the enabling He provides for their fulfillment dwells within us, providing an immediacy of capability to do the will of God regardless of the weakness we may rightly sense in our humanity. The dynamic protocol of "I Cannot! - I Can! - Through Christ!" resides nearer than our next breath in all believers (John 15:5; Philippians 4:13; I John 4:9). Thereby, our native weakness becomes the scene wherein His indwelling life and power leads us to do what we could never otherwise accomplish. As Paul testified, "He that wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision, the same was mighty in me toward the Gentiles" (Galatians 2:8).
However God has called us to serve Him and others, the privileged responsibility far outweighs our human capacities. Thankfully, He knows this far better than do we ourselves. Thus, He provided Himself in the Person of the Holy Spirit to motivate, lead, and enable us. Again, we do well to pray as did our brother of old, the Apostle Paul, whose recognition of weakness led to affirmation of the power of God that had come to him, and dwelled within him. Yes, Divine enabling and human weakness unite in believers to empower a life and service that directs all glory to the Lord Jesus, and a blessedness to us known in the wonder of, "My strength is made perfect in weakness" (II Corinthians 12:9).
"For though He was crucified through weakness, yet He liveth by the power of God. For we also are weak in Him, but we shall live with Him by the power of God toward you."
(II Corinthians 13:4)
Weekly Memory Verse
For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.
(I Corinthians 12:12)
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