Today's Daily Lesson comes from Ephesians chapter 1 verses 15 through 22:
15 I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love* towards all the saints, and for this reason 16I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers. 17I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, 18so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, 19and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power. 20God* put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come. 22And he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, 23which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
It is natural that we feel dispirited now and even powerless. The problems of our nation are large and complex and seem very far from answer. The forces at work seem so cosmic and beyond our ability to control. We can easily be dismayed now.
But this morning the faithful are reminded of the power we have in Christ -- a power "far above all rule and authority and power and dominion". We are reminded of the power we have in Christ in us.
In 1945 after the end of World War II, Martin Niemoller -- who had been imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp for 7 years -- led the Christian churches of Germany in what is known as the Stuttgart Confession of Guilt. It was a confession of the Church's complicity in the Nazi era and its admission that it had not done enough to resist the rise of Nazism. Crimes against peoples and nations were admitted; and so too was it admitted that the Church had not "prayed more fervently" and "believed more joyously".
These are difficult days now; so we must continue to pray fervently and believe joyously and see and use the power God has given us for just such a time as this.
For our God is greater than all else. And the power of God in Christ is in us. So let us pray, and believe, and never give up hope.
Ryon Price is Senior Pastor of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas.
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