Hope Series : Day 5

Hope Devotional Series

Week 1: Ephesians 1:15-23

Day 5:

Welcome to day 5, the last day of the first week of our series where we focus on Hope. Today we focus on Ephesians 1:22-23 - the last part of Paul’s prayer:

“And He (that is God) put all things under His (that is Jesus) feet, and gave Him (Jesus) to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.”

I remember when we were kids, the boys used to tell stories about strong people. I specifically remember my friend Juan telling us how his uncle back in Puerto Rico grabbed a horse around the neck when it went wild and his uncle held the horse in his grip until it calmed down. Now today I doubt very much if that was true, but on that day he told this story, nobody could match it. This was after all something like a game, and the winner was clearly Juan with his uncle being the strongest. And Juan …, he gained the respect of the other boys, not because he told the story, but because the very strong man he was telling the story about, was Juan’s uncle!

Yesterday we heard it was God’s power that raised Jesus from the dead and placed Him in authority above everything in heaven and on earth. Paul continues with this theme when he says that God’s power placed everything under Jesus’ feet and made Him the “head over all things”.

God’s power is greater than any power the world has ever seen. Not greater in the sense that God is just stronger, or like John’s uncle that was stronger than anybody else they knew. But when we behold Jesus, we come to know that the very nature of the power of God is different. The powers in this world rule by force, fear, manipulation, and control. The power of God overcomes these powers just like light overcomes darkness because it is different.

This power is also now available to us. Jesus as “head” in this sentence also means that He is directly joined to the people who believe in Him, just as a head is joined to the body. We have direct access to the greatest power the world has ever seen.

For the body – that is the body of believers – to live with resurrection-power, we need to align with the Head. This is one of the reasons we are called to repentance. Repentance, as we already saw, is aligning our thinking with Jesus. Learn to align your idea of power and authority with Jesus. We are the body, and He is our Head – not the other way around. And so, we are also joined to Him in His mission to fill everything with this restoring and renewing power of God. When you embrace the call to be part of the body of this King, asking how He wants to work with you for His Kingdom mission, His power will be available to you as a daily source of hope and strength.

So, let’s pray: Thank You almighty Father - You have joined us with Jesus, and your power is available to us every day and everywhere. Strengthen us to align our thinking with Jesus, so that You can use us as your partners to fill this world with your hope-bringing power. In Jesus name. Amen.