Week Three, Tuesday
Incomplete Sentence With a Purpose
By Pastor Paul Georgulis
Ephesians 3:1
“For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles…” – Ephesians 3:1 (New International Version)
No, I did not make a mistake here. Our passage – or I guess I should say verse…or actually half of a verse – is exactly as the Apostle Paul wrote it. In this incomplete sentence, the Apostle Paul begins writing and then gets diverted and doesn’t finish the sentence. Sounds like a pastor going off on a rabbit trail mid-sermon, doesn’t it? Paul does, however, come back to it thirteen verses later and completes his thought, and we will get to that on Saturday, May 9th. What sidetracked Paul was the need to explain who he was, his mission, and why he was willing to suffer imprisonment and persecution for the message of the gospel. Even though Paul penned these words while in prison, he maintained his firm belief that God was in control of all history, including all that happened to him.
If that’s not a powerful message for us in this time of quarantine due to the Coronavirus, I don’t know what is. Do the things you see on the news or our current circumstances make you wonder if God has lost control of this world? Like Paul, remember that no matter what happens, God is in control and carefully watching over you.
Prayer:
Father, in a world that seems to be without hope of a positive future right now, we take comfort in the fact that with you as our focus, there is always hope. We thank you that even though the world seems to be crumbling around us, we can know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you are still here, you are still working, and that you still have everything under control.
