The Everyday Prayer

Re:Verse passage – Ephesians 5:15-21 (day seven)

making the most of your time. Vs 16

I love reading scripture in different translations. Here are some of my favorites of the week:

Making the best use of the time (ESV)

Make the most of every opportunity (NLT)

Redeeming the time (NKJV)

What becomes abundantly clear through these differing translations is that we, as children of the light, have been called by God to make the most of the opportunities we have been given. This is not a call to programming. We have a tendency to think that “making the most of our time” means that we need to do more, so we proceed to cram our schedule with things that we perceive will help us make the most of time. Yet, this passage takes a different route. He is calling us to take the moments that arise in a given day, those that are dark, bleak or even uneventful, and redeem them. Take the moments where the enemy is trying to push forward the darkness and shine the Light back into it. “The Light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it.” How can you redeem the moments and opportunities that will come up today?

Re:Verse passage – Ephesians 5:15-21(day six)

The Holy Spirit always leads his children into mindfulness, the presence of mind to live for Jesus daily. That’s why Paul says, “Be filled with the Holy Spirit.”

To be filled with the Spirit is not a mindless experience (like magic) but the movement of Christ from the periphery to the center of your life by the power of the Spirit. To put it more concretely, being filled with the Spirit means seeing and following Jesus in all life. The Spirit of God does this by helping us see Jesus. We cannot have the presence of mind to live for Christ daily if we cannot see him; the Holy Spirit ensures we do (John 16:13-16).

Re:Verse passage – Ephesians 5:15-21(day five)

In a culture and climate where we are often tempted and encouraged to keep our faith personal and private, the scriptures point to a different approach. Even with a subject so deeply intense and unique to each believer (being filled with the Spirit), Paul encourages and prescribes an outward response and evidence of the work of the Spirit. It’s found two times after he says, “Be filled with the Spirit.”  “One Another”. There is this sense in our Re:Verse passage of genuine interaction and community. Speaking and singing to and with one another- vs 19. Serving and submitting to and with one another- vs 21. We are filled in and for genuine community.

As the Spirit fills us, may we joyfully encourage and submit to one another with our speech, our songs, and our service.

Re:Verse passage – Ephesians 5:15-21 (day four)

One of my favorite professors in seminary taught a class on worship. He shared a thought in that class that has stuck with me ever since: in the gathered worship service, for some that are present, it took all they had just to get through the door. Life’s hardships have become too much to raise their voice, but they sought the presence of Jesus and got through the door. For the rest of us, whether we know their hardships or not, we sing on their behalf. Our song of praise lifts them up and wraps them in love as they seek the Spirit’s presence.

There will also be days where the roles are reversed. Where we give our last bit of strength to simply get through the door on a Sunday morning. But the song of those around us ministers to us and lifts us up. They sing on our behalf. I know I have had days like this, and the sound of the congregation’s singing carried me into the presence of God.

Paul isn’t being cute here when he tells us to sing. He knows that this is one of the ways the body of Christ can minister to one another. Our song to the Lord is also a ministry to our neighbor.

Re:Verse passage – Ephesians 5:15-21 (day three)

“And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit…”

Substance use makes sense as an attempt to avoid otherwise painful places of a person’s inner world. A person seeking such relief will experience shame from others. And now in addition to the internal agony the person lives with, that person must also navigate feelings of disgrace and rejection. It’s awful. Fortunately, Paul’s words here offer compassion. He acknowledges how hard the world is on a person’s heart (“the days are evil”). His words convey the understanding that people do reach for all kinds of things to ease the pain. And then he says that there is a way to the soothing you’re looking for that will not use you up like you are disposable and worthless. That way is the Spirit of God himself.

Re:Verse passage – Ephesians 5:15-21 (day two) 

speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; v. 19

Although the Bible study literature stops at verse 18, it should not surprise you that I am happy to include the next two verses. It also shouldn’t come as a shock that Ephesians 5:19 was a verse I learned early in my musical studies. To think that scripture was so explicit about the role of music in our daily lives,  not to mention its profound role in corporate worship, I was delighted and humbled. We were all created to sing, that is a maxim not requiring debate. Whether you sing as well as I is immaterial. God did not misspeak when he commanded his children to sing praises to him. You have breath in your lungs, and you have a voice to sing.

None of this should come as a surprise coming from a worship pastor, but I would challenge you to think of music as a barometer of your spiritual health as well. There are chapters of my life where I have struggled and felt hopeless or depressed. Times where I really struggled with my purpose. I have noticed that in those times I didn’t want to sing. I didn’t have a soundtrack running through my head, and nothing sounded right. This was a clear indication to me that I was allowing myself to drift from who and what God called me to be. Since those days I have become more mindful to listen to the music of my heart to help diagnose my spiritual health.

Your song may not always be peppy and upbeat, but allow the Holy Spirit to fill your mind, heart, and voice with the songs of Heaven to help navigate this journey. Don’t allow the adversary to steal your song.

ADDENDUM: This is already a longer post than usual, so please forgive the extra addition. Today is Election Day. I want to encourage you to pray. Not that your candidate win, but that the Lord’s will be done. Our hope cannot be tied to a person other than Jesus. If we do that and that person loses, what does that say? Jesus cannot lose. Pray that God would give you strength and courage to Love Your Neighbor more fiercely tomorrow that you did today, and may we all be secure in the purpose and plan of God.

Re:Verse passage – Ephesians 5:8-14 (day seven)

 for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord. vs 8

You were darkness itself. Before you were adopted as a child of the light, you were eternally separated from God with sin darkening your soul. Verses 3-7 showed us that immorality, impurity, covetousness, and crude humor are symptoms of this darkness.

Despite our best efforts to walk in the light, these deeds of darkness have a way of sneaking back in don’t they? Darkness is who we were and that past continues to have its hold on our life. We let it back in out of familiarity, thinking the taste of darkness won’t completely extinguish our light. Though it may not be extinguished, participating in such deeds causes our light to become more dim.

We need repentance to recharge our light by reaching the darkest corners of our heart, even those places where we are holding on to the familiarity of our past. Repentance allows us to personally walk in the light as children of the light to help the light to shine in the darkest parts of the world.

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound
that saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost, but now I’m found;
was blind, but now I see.

—John Newton, “Amazing Grace”

John Newton’s life story is a powerful example of transformation. Once hardened by his role in the slave trade, he lived in spiritual darkness. But during a fierce storm, when he feared for his life, he cried out to God in desperation, and his prayer was answered. God spared him, opening his eyes to his need for grace and setting him on a new path.

Newton’s words echo the promise that we, too, can move from darkness to light. As Paul writes, “You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.” To live in God’s light is to see life in a new way, to embrace hope, and to walk forward with purpose. Newton’s hymn reminds us that God’s grace is always enough to turn our darkest moments into a new beginning.

No matter where we start, God’s grace meets us there, leading us to light and life.

Re:Verse passage – Ephesians 5:8-14(day five)  The NIV translates verse 11, “Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.”  I like that picture and imagery. NOTHING!!  Not acting. Not thinking. Not looking. Not questioning. Not wondering.  When we even consider or dabble in those deeds of darkness, in a sense we “face” toward them.  Our attention moves to them.  Paul’s solution face the opposite direction. Towards God and His light and love. What compels us to do that?  The priority and passion of pleasing Him. Notice all our attention and affection move from those deeds of darkness to pleasing the Lord. We move from nothing to all. All our time. All our thoughts. All our actions. All our questions and concerns. We mentally, emotionally, and spiritually shift to learning about the Lord and His character and nature, so that we might please Him.