Squandered Faith

Ephesians 3:8–13 (NASB 95)

8 To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, 9 and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things; 10 so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. 11 This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, 12 in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him. 13 Therefore I ask you not to lose heart at my tribulations on your behalf, for they are your glory.

Examine / Explain

The unity of Jew and Gentile, a mystery hidden in God’s eternal plan, is a testament to the salvation of all. This unity, made possible through Jesus Christ’s obedience, grants us boldness and access to Him through faith. In times of suffering, let us not lose heart, for our tribulations are a part of God’s glory.

What’s the application?

Where am I? Where is my faith? Am I a fickle human who can’t see past the current situations in my life and know that I serve the God of the universe? Can I only focus on the here and now? Am I so distracted by what I feel that I fail at suffering for others? What do we know about suffering? I can’t get what I want when I want it, and that is what we call suffering. Paul was in prison for his faith. Jesus was beaten, spat on, and nailed to the cross for me. I can’t seem to keep my mind off the temporal things; woe is me. Come on! I feel like I and we squander our faith. We get so focused on the wrong things and lose sight of what is important. Love God. Love others. Jesus boiled it down for us. Watching a cooking show, I see a chef take something that is plain, simple, and delicious and turn it into some over-the-top dish, and they add in all these weird ingredients to zest it up. That is the church. That is human nature. We think the simple things are not good enough, we have to add flare. Jesus handed us the simple truth, love God and love others. We make it complicated and try to add our own flare to the pot. No. He boiled it down for a reason. We need simple. One of the things I love about The Chosen is when Jesus heals the blind the first face they see is His. Opening their eyes the savior of the world. How blind have I become? What things in my life have covered my eyes to the truth? Love God, Love others. Lust of the flesh, lust of the eye, and the boastful pride of life are getting in the way.

My response.

Father, I squander my faith in You. I allow distractions to get in my way for serving You completely. My humanness is leading the way instead of allowing the Spirit to work through me. Help me in this. It’s the same old situation. I need to die more and let You live through me. My kingdom needs a coupe. It needs to be overthrown. I need to kick my sand castle down. That’s all it is. Anything I build myself is a castle built of sand. It will crumble. It will get washed away. But Your Kingdom is built on a rock. A firm foundation and that is where I need to live. Get me there. Amen!