The Everyday Prayer

Re:Verse passage – Colossians 1:15-24 (day seven)

 He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. vs 17

Do you ever find yourself asking God in retrospect where He was at when you needed Him? “Where were you God? Why did you not help me there?” Those questions reveal more about our understanding of God than they do His absence. If you listen closely, you will hear His reply, “I was there the whole time.”

Jesus is in all things! He does not just hold the whole world in His hands, his hands are what holds the whole world together. The interconnectedness of our universe points us to a Creator who is connecting all these things. From the device you are reading this on, to the walls surrounding you, to the very breath you breathe, Jesus is in all things. How might we become more aware of His presence, so that we may more readily invite Him into the difficult moments of our life? We need to know are never alone!

Re:Verse passage – Colossians 1:15-24(day six)

For God in all his fullness
    was pleased to live in Christ,
²⁰ and through him God reconciled
    everything to himself.
He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth
    by means of Christ’s blood on the cross. Colossians 1:19-20

The Son of God became a flesh and blood man. He hugged his parents, worked with his hands, had dirty feet, picked figs off trees, and likely had a favorite food. This is important because it means Jesus reconciled all our humanity and creation to God, and not just part of it. If God were not interested in redeeming our physical bodies, he would not have sent his son to take on a human body. He would not have sent his son to enter creation if he were not interested in redeeming the earth.

When we over-spiritualize God’s work of reconciliation, we can miss what he is up to. Christ’s blood on the cross does far more than provide forgiveness; it gives us tangible peace with God, others, creation, and even ourselves…forever.

Through Jesus, God reconciled everything to himself. That’s what it means to be human.

Re:Verse passage – Colossians 1:15-24(day five)  If Jesus is the perfect picture (image) of God- and He is. Then a good question might be, “Is He is also the best picture of human beings?”  The answer is Yes.  Jesus is the complete and full image of all that man was created to be. And as a man, He perfectly displayed the nature and character of God. “He is the image of the invisible God”  There is great hope, privilege, and opportunity for each of us (who have a relationship with God through Christ), to  become like Christ and be an image bearer. So then, we must ask ourselves (and ask it all the time) what could be uncomfortable and awkward questions, “Do others see in me a picture and image of the invisible God?”  “Do I faithfully glorify God as an image of both His holiness and grace?”

Re:Verse passage – Colossians 1:15-24 (day four)

In Jesus, we see who God truly is. Jesus is the visible image of the invisible God. But we also see who we as humans are meant to be – reflections of God’s image and love. Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of true divinity, but also of true humanity.

This miraculous person of Jesus, the one who singularly stands at the center of all space and time, is the one in whom all things find their creation and their restoration. Colossians reminds us that “…it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.”

Because Jesus is at the center all things, nothing is beyond restoration. In our darkest moments, we may think that we or a loved one is beyond repair, but Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection definitively say otherwise. Because of Jesus, nothing broken is beyond repair, nothing dirtied is beyond restoration, and nothing dead is beyond resurrection. Our bodies, our minds, and our spirits may groan now, but we find our strength knowing that whether it is in this life or the one to come, Christ is restoring all things to himself.

Re:Verse passage – Colossians 1:15-24 (day three)

“He is the image of the invisible God.”

It’s not uncommon to hear in evangelical circles that the way to know God is through Jesus Christ. Often a person will mean by that statement that Christ is the way one gets to God, as in, begins a life of friendship with God. This passage of scripture also has another dimension to it. It is this: when you wonder what God’s character is like, what he thinks about, how he lives, whether he notices you, or wants you near him, or considers your longings important, or pays attention to the things that break your heart, look at Jesus Christ. You can’t just take God in and discern his person. That’s all too much, too big, too high for you. But you can take in Jesus. You can behold him, the man. That’s God.

Re:Verse passage – Colossians 1:15-24 (day two) Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His body, which is the church, in filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions. Vs. 24

It has been a joy to consider what it means to bear the image of God during this summer’s study. As we read this week’s passage, notice how many ‘body’ words are included: mind, flesh, body. Paul understood not just the metaphor of the body of Christ, but also the need to surrender everything we have to Kingdom purpose. If Christ is before all things and holds all things together, then we do well to recognize that is more than an institutional catchphrase, it is a reminder that we his handiwork. The image of God was not intended to be hidden, but displayed, celebrated, and shared. May we never tire of helping others to see how they were made to do the same.

Re:Verse passage – Romans 12:1-2  (day seven)

… present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.

This week I came to a realization: I am not as young as I used to be. Some of you are now laughing at me, but as our bodies change with age, there are changes that we must choose to make. If I want to keep up with teenagers and toddlers, I need to make sure my body is up for the challenge. Not only is it about health, but this scripture tells us that it is a part of our worship. Our bodies are not our own. Our bodies have been given to us by God (in the image of God) to be given back to God in an act of worship.

The way that we treat our bodies is an indication of how we view God. In the Old Testament every sacrifice that was brought before God had to be Holy and acceptable. Deuteronomy 15:21 tells us that these sacrifices could not have defects, so as we look at what it means for us to present our bodies as a sacrifice in worship, we should work to remove the defects, spiritual and physical, that make it unacceptable. When we remember that our bodies belong to Him, He will help us make the decisions to keep it Holy!

Re:Verse passage – Romans 12:1-2 (Day 6)

This post could be part two of Bryan’s post, Real.

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. Romans 12:1-2

What Paul describes in Romans 12:1-2 is not new, but very old, all-the-way-back-to-the-beginning old. It isn’t extraordinary or exceptional, but as image bearers, it should be the most real and normal thing a human can do. In fact, we are our truest selves and the most alive when we give ourselves wholly to God and see the world through his wisdom.

Paul asks us to “Be everything God created you to be. Be normal.”