19I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power 20that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms. 21Now he is far above any ruler or authority or power or leader or anything else—not only in this world but also in the world to come. 22God has put all things under the authority of Christ and has made him head over all things for the benefit of the church. 23And the church is his body; it is made full and complete by Christ, who fills all things everywhere with himself.
Do you feel like you have the power that raised Jesus from the dead available to you? If so, why am I not zapping stuff all over the place and changing the world?
If Jesus even has this power, why doesn’t he fix this mess…I mean world?
If all things, in this world and in the spiritual world, are under Christ “for the benefit of the church”, why are we struggling so much?
What does it mean to be Christ’s “body”? What does it mean to be made “full and complete by Christ”?
It is so hard for us humans to make sense of this, which is why the book is written by God, not us, I’m guessing. But when we start asking the questions, perhaps they answer themselves.
God has this great power for us, it isn’t ours to wield at our every whim. When Jesus was physically on this earth, he didn’t just use his power “willy-nilly” either. Let’s assume God has the power to “fix” this world and end the chaos and the suffering (I think its a safe assumption). Why doesn’t he? I believe the only safe assumption is that he wants the chaos and the suffering…for now. It must serve his purpose, and if we could “zap” stuff with God-issued magic wands we would mess things up.
I’ve come to the conclusion that I need to trust that God is using the chaos of life for his good reasons. I have explanations of why this could be true, but the real peace seems to be in just trusting that “he’s got this”. Paul seems to understand this when he writes it. There doesn’t appear to be the slightest hint of doubt in his mind. For him the power, the good, everything just seems to be awesome, and Paul’s life was certainly chaotic.
Now if you need a little understanding to help your faith, think about cancer treatments. Millions of times a day good meaning doctors make people horribly sick with chemotherapy in an effort to kill cancer. How do we know the suffering a chaos of this world isn’t a massive dose of eternity curing chemotherapy?
