We are the Community’s Church – Encouraging and Empowering People with Faith to Embrace Life with Christ’s Power

“We are the Community’s Church – Encouraging and Empowering People with Faith to Embrace Life with Christ’s Power.” An Ephesians 3:20 faith has two practical components. First, it encourages you with an optimistic, inspiring, and faithful outlook upon life, intending to compound your joy as a seeker of God’s truth. I firmly resolve that spirituality offers us more than the ability to subsist in life. The image of a person barely treading in deep water immediately comes to mind. It is very hard to experience love, joy, peace, truth and justice when you fight daily to keep your head above the waves of fear, uncertainty, lack, and anger. A more humble and genuine experience of God’s unconditional love results in the refusal to live as someone barely keeping his nose above water in the ocean of life!

Second, an Ephesians 3:20 faith infinitely pours cups of living water. It seeks to empower you as you more fully seek God’s will for your life. The practice of daily spiritual disciplines will equip you with the personal, internal and divine resources to realize the life that you imagine. A faith that insists that Almighty God is able to do more than the total of your most outlandish requests and wildest imagination is fundamental to fulfilling your drams and goals. Although he was one hundred years old and his wife, Sarah, was ninety years old, Abraham received a son, his heart’s greatest desire and mind’s most precious dream. You too can experience such joy if you acquire an Ephesians 3:20 faith.
My pastoral and personal prayer for each member of our congregation and follower of this blog is the emergence of an Ephesians 3:20 faith in daily life. A Christian sister named Rosella who belonged to a congregation where I served previously incredibly exemplified this lifestyle. She learned of a serious and progressive cancer diagnosis which was life threatening. Upon informing me of her illness during a phone conversation, she immediately tells me that she has surrendered her illness to God. “O God, I pray that you will glorify Yourself in my illness in whatever way You choose.” Cynically, one could relegate her prayer to a formulaic recitation of a traditional saying of longstanding churchgoers. Over the course of next five years, the church family and I observe Rosella’s faith in action. Despite numerous surgeries, cancer treatments, hospitalizations, and “bad” days, she never complains once! Each time she attends Sunday services, she radiates a big and bright smile, gives an encouraging word to everyone and looks as beautiful as ever. Understandably, Rosella greatly desires the complete physical healing that she receives because she wants to share the balance of her life with her beloved daughter and grandchildren. Yet, she also maintains a stalwart faith that proffers the goodness and grace of Almighty God even if He chooses to heal her through death. On the night of a milestone birthday, Rosella’s natural and church families gather to celebrate this juncture in her earthly and spiritual journey because it also accords with a recent cancer-free diagnosis. God chooses to heal her and extend her years of ministry; her cancer went into remission. Rosella genuinely believes that God has the sovereign prerogative and power to supersede an oncologist’s diagnosis and treatment recommendations. Each day during her five-year challenge, she personifies an Ephesians 3:20 faith.

Additionally, I often think of the magnanimous faith of a former colleague with whom I worked during my years in educational administration. Valerie lives by the simple spiritual principle, “What God has for me is mine and no one else can take it. He will give it to me in His own time and in His own way.” Quite exceptionally, she never questions God! She truly believes that He desires the very best for her. Valerie trusts the unquestionable faithfulness of Almighty God. As it relates to employment, she simply prays for a job and the “right” offer always comes. Unlike most people, she does not send numerous cover letters and resumes to countless employers. “Whenever I need a job, God always provides one,” she says. In the sixteen years of our friendship, I continually marvel at her meekness and peace despite the challenging circumstances of life. She appears so free of fear in any situation; it is hard to believe that she sweats. Nevertheless, at an age when society suggests that marriage and motherhood have passed her by, she bountifully received both blessings. Upon making the decision to stay home with her son for three years, she does not fret. True to her faith and character, she simply says that God will provide a job when she returns to work. Past practice proving instructive, she resumes work without the arduous job search that many undertake. Like Rosella, Valerie models the characteristics of an Ephesians 3:20 faith.

Summarily, I hope that our church and this blog will be oasis of an encouraging and empowering Ephesians 3:20 faith where the average disciple can cultivate a lifestyle of faith similar to Rosella and Valerie.