Ephesians 3:1, 7
“For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles...whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power.”
Focus Thought
Politician’s may “spin” the truth, but God does not and we shouldn’t either. When opening Ephesians 3, Paul could have legitimately portrayed himself as anything from a miracle-worker to a church-planter to an author. But he doesn’t. He calls himself a prisoner. Paul emphasizes that his extraordinary life is nothing more than God adding some “extra” to his ordinary existence.
The Next Step
Welcome to the season of politics! There’s nothing like this time of year. The closer we get to Election Day, the more we are bombarded by radio spots, TV ads, shiny mailers, and telephone surveys. Over and over again, the two (or more) politicians that are running for each office take the same situation and interpret it in vastly different ways. We call it spin. Each person takes each specific situation and “spins” it to say what they want it to say.
Spin goes beyond the political realm as well. We see it on our job recommendations. We see it on our resumés. We see it at our dinner tables or at the principles office while we sit with our children. Spin has become an integral part of our lives.
Thankfully, God doesn’t do spin. And if God doesn’t do it, chances are we probably shouldn’t either. Paul illustrates this point in his opening of Ephesians 3. As a missionary, miracle-worker, church-planter, apostle, and author, Paul could have described himself anyway he wanted. But he opens Ephesians 3 by saying, “I’m a prisoner to the Gentiles.” Period. No commentary, no illustrious title, no spin, just “I’m a prisoner.”
Even in Ephesians 3:7 when Paul calls himself a minister, he quickly adds that it’s only by the grace and power of God. In other words, Paul is quick to point out that the part of him that everyone admires, the part that everyone is inspired by, the part that everyone vies for and wants to claim, is the part of him that has nothing to do with him at all. Without God, he’s just another man in chains.
The Bible goes to great lengths to give the back stories of the people God chose to use all throughout history. It points out that Abraham was the son of an idol-maker who was in his seventies and was married to his sister (and you thought you had family problems). Abraham’s sister-wife Sarah is a barely-converted, former idol-worshipper. She was also manipulative, barren, and in her 60’s, not to mention in her 90′s when she has her first child. But God looks at these flawed human beings and He says, “I’m going to make a nation out of you.”
The Bible points out that Peter was rejected by the Jewish Scholars as having what it takes to be a religious leader. According to Jewish culture in Peter’s day, the children who didn’t show an apititude for Scripture or who didn’t stand out as having potential were sent to be tradesmen. That’s why he was a fisherman; He didn’t make the cut. He was a reject, a not-good-enough, but God says, “I’m going to send you to reach the very people who said you have no future outside of a fishing boat.”
But the most amazing thing of all is that God doesn’t cover up where Abraham or Sarah or Peter came from. He doesn’t cover up the fact that Paul was in chains. God forgives their sin, but He doesn’t “spin” their story. He doesn’t censor their lives or rewrite them to where everywhere they walked they saw rainbows and sunshine and angel babies falling from the sky.
God doesn’t rewrite our story, He rewrites US.
And just like Abraham and Sarah and Paul and you and me, the things that people admire, the gifts and callings and talents that God has placed in our lives, the things that people take for granted when they look at us are not a result of where we came from, but they are a result of the grace and power of God working in our lives. God takes our ordinary lives and makes them extraordinary. Extraordinary is nothing more than ordinary with a little “extra” thrown in. You turn in your “ordinary” to God, He’ll throw in the “extra.”
When God called Moses and David they were tending sheep. When God called Elisha he was plowing a field. When God called Matthew he was sitting at his desk at his dead-end job. Where will you be when God invades your Monday? Where will you be when God turns your Tuesday upside-down? You don’t need a “spin”–you don’t need God to censor, embellish, or rewrite your life story–you simply need God to rewrite YOU.
Think about that and while you do, here are some things to do this week:
Invite
Invite God to invade the “Mondays” in your life. Invite him to take your ordinary existance and make it extraordinary.
Share
Share your story–uncensored–with someone this week. Use it as a witnessing opportunity. People are not looking for fairy tales. They’re looking for real people with real lives who have had a real experience with God. So take someone out and share a real pizza, a real burger, a real coffee, a real whatever…and talk about the real life you’ve found in Christ.
