Thursday, January 2, 2020

Ephesians 3:20-21

I run a Facebook group dedicated to mental health and recovery, and from this group has sprang up a few different group chats.  One of them is a Bible Study group chat, where we can all share the verses that are speaking to us at the moment and have theological discussion.
My aunt is a part of the group and she almost always, every morning, drops a Bible verse in the Bible Study group chat.  I usually read it, feel happy, go about my day, sometimes respond.  But, this morning after she did that, I was reading through one of my reading plans on the YouVersion Bible app (it has the Katie recommended seal of approval), and came across Ephesians 3:20-21.
(Picture generated by YouVersion Bible app, verse is KJV)
I shared that image in the group chat, and left it.
But, the best part about group chats is that there are other people in them, who can offer their input.  And my aunt did.
"I've prayed this verse so many times and it didn't happen like I thought I would... So I got to thinking that maybe God doesn't always give us more than we ask if we don't take care of what He does give us...
So I've been trying to make that right and take care of what I have...
Now, I wonder if I just don't really believe this deep down... I know God promises our needs as well, and so I trust that promise... And He has never failed to follow through.
But since I feel like I just now have a good handle with what He has given, I don't know that I fully believe He will give more than I ask or think..."
Sometimes verses like Ephesians 3:20-21 are turned into prosperity gospel.  The idea that if we give xyz to God, then he'll pour back into us more than we can imagine...which isn't exactly false.  But when this verse is discussed, it's almost always about the physical.  If we give our time to God, he'll give us money.  If we give our money to God, he'll give us stuff.  If we give our service to God, he'll give us MORE money and stuff.
Maybe we have it wrong what he's going to pour out to us.
He promises to supply all of our needs.
“But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” — Philippians 4:19 KJV
But is what we need more stuff?
It's nice, I gotta admit.  I enjoy my stuff.  Please do not take any of my 200 (didn't actually count them) stuffed animals.  Most of them have names and are special.  Please don't take my books or video games, or movies.  I like my stuff.
Money is very nice.  A little to fall back on in case of an emergency.  A nice savings account.  Being able to go out with friends and pick up the check and the tip.  Being able to buy that cool thing at Walmart without checking the price.  Splurging on beef sticks.  Buying the ever expensive, but always delicious beef jerky.
But is it really what we need?
There are Christians in countries that aren't the USA who are being tortured, killed, beheaded, and imprisoned.  Just because they're Christians who refuse to renounce Christ.  They don't have stuff.  And if we believe stuff is our need, then God isn't supplying all their need.  So...God must be lying.
But.  My God isn't a liar.
I've quoted this verse in almost every post I've made on this blog...because it is one of my favorites.
"...be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” — Hebrews 13:5b
Be content with what you have.  Why?  Because God is not going to leave us or forsake us.  He is all we need.  God supplies us with himself.  With his grace, and mercy, peace that passes understanding.
"And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." — Philippians 4:7 KJV
And besides just supplying us with himself, he takes care and interest into our lives and our wants, and our physical needs.
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all." — Matthew 6:25-32 ESV
He knows we have these physical needs.  He cares about us, and he cares about our needs.  I've never gone without clothing.  Even when I was growing up, and thought we weren't going to have food to eat, God always supplied the food.  I didn't starve.
But, at the end of the day, our biggest need is him.  Our only lasting need, is him.
That's why, to me, Hebrews 13:5b is so important.  It covers more than just one thing.  It covers my abandonment issues (written about here).  And it reminds me to be content with what I have...even if all I have is God.
Our lives on earth are so short.  But they aren't meaningless.  In the vastness of the universe, we are smaller than a speck of dust, and dust is smaller still.  Yet the maker of the universe, the creator of all that is, takes an interest in us, and loves us.  Not because we're worthy of his love, but because...because he just does.  There is no logical reason why God should love us.  Left to our own devices, the worst of us murder, rape, and torture, and the best of us tend to wind up bitter about one thing or another, and what good we do wind up doing takes a lot of work and effort.
 "Teach us to realize the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom." — Psalm 90:12 NLT
"...yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes." — James 4:14 ESV
 Yet despite our inconsequentialness and self-centeredness, God takes interest in us and loves us.  The thing is, like my friend Linda (another lady within the group) said, God sees the big picture.  We don't.  We barely even see what's right in front of us.
"For now we see through a glass, darkly..." — I Corinthians 13:12a.
Something else my friend Linda said was:
"God gives us what we need when we need it. Our finite imagination can't fathom what He can do. It also doesn't fully comprehend the difference between our wants and our needs. "
I've been told that I have a big imagination.  I can imagine...a lot, both good and bad. But Linda's right.  I can't imagine all that God can do.  I can't imagine a world without pain and suffering...I can't imagine heaven.
What she ended her message with was this:
"Part of being a good steward is accepting what He gives us and being content because we know He has our eternal best interest in mind."
My aunt replied (I'm paraphrasing) that sometimes later down the road, we see that what God gave us was better than what we wanted, whined about, cried over, and asked for.
I cried over my ex.  I wanted to marry him.  I wanted a life with him.  But had I married him, it would have been a horribly lonely, unfulfilling marriage.  We would have been at each other's throats.  I didn't see it at the time, though.  I saw his potential.  But potential is not who a person is.
I asked God to let what was best happen, and begged for what was best to be my relationship mending and being restored. But what wound up happening was that we broke up (maybe I'll write a fuller post about that at some point in time).  And it didn't feel like what was the best.
But things are better now...because I don't have what I thought I needed and wanted.  Because, surprise surprise, the one who made everything knew better than I did.
God can do above and beyond what we could ever ask or think.  And sometimes what he does, doesn't entail giving us what we want.  Because he's above and beyond us.  Beyond our very understanding.
"My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord.  And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine." — Isaiah 55:8 NLT
And that's okay.  Because this:
""For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope."" — Jeremiah 29:11 NLT
And this:
"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." — Romans 8:28 KJV
Things may not go the way we think they ought to.  And we may not get everything we want or think we need.  We may not be blessed abundantly with stuff and money.  And that's okay.  We are blessed with God.

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