I Bow My Knees

 

Photo by Jakayla Toney on Unsplash

 

Ephesians. 3:14-21

 

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ  Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen

 

 

 

I am weak, Lord. I am lowly.

I bring nothing in my hands.

I offer no credentials, no reputation, no resume worth reading.

My track record is checkered. My focus is scattered.

My mind is here and there and everywhere.

I am easily distracted and frequently tested to the core.

Yet, God, you are my God. Yet, God, you love me, value me, invest in me, and show grace and mercy to me daily.

 

I am unworthy.

You are worthy.

All my value is that you regard me.

Why, oh why?

It does not matter why because You are the Why of all things and of my existence

and You have engraved Your love into the fabric of the universe.

 

Your love, Oh LORD, is the only true reality, standard, and truth that bleeds through all of our opinions about ourselves and others.

Your wrath is against all that is not love.

Why then, if I am not judged, can I ever stand in judgment against my neighbor?

I shall not. He and she are Yours.

You see in them that which is precious even as You see something precious in me.

 

Give me glimpses today of the wonder in my neighbors eyes and the love in his or her heart that I may view my neighbor through the lenses of Your redemptive and reconciling grace and lay all of my prejudices and agendas aside.

 

And may my neighbor join me in this cause and his neighbor and her neighbor.

 

I pray this, as the only solution to our divisions in the Name of Jesus who divided us in order to unite us, who showed us hard truth in order to reconcile us to Himself and to one another, who bore all pain, sin, and alienation upon Himself in order to introduce us to You as Your long lost children who have come home.

 

Give us the heart of the prodigal's father.

Give us Your heart and the heart of Jesus, Your Son.

Amen.

 

 

Called from darkness where we wandered.
Called to follow brilliant light.
From the lives that we squandered.
From our blindness, hearts ignite.

We have heard the distant voice
Growing closer by the hour.
We have made the desperate choice.
We are consumed by gentle power.

He has said now, "Follow me."
We have answered, "Yes. We see!"