Jawbreakers

PRAYER OF CONSECRATION Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.  Abba, I belong to you. I lift up my heart to you. I set my mind on you. I fix my eyes on you. I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice. Abba, we belong to you.  Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.  Ephesians 3:20–21 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. CONSIDER THIS Does anyone remember the candy from years ago we used to call "Jawbreakers"?  They looked like a large gum ball; only when you put it in your mouth and bit down it felt like a rock in your mouth. It was too big to hold in the center of your mouth for very long and way too big to swallow. The only thing you could do with a jawbreaker was to put it over in the side of your mouth, between your back teeth and your cheek. It protruded outward in your cheek like a wad of chewing tobacco. It would take hours to melt away for those who had the patience to stay with it. In retrospect, the dentists must have loved Jawbreakers as they kept them in business.  That's how I see today's text—as a Jawbreaker. Can we pick it up and put it in our mouth just now, get a hint of the flavor, and push it over into our cheek up against our jaw?  Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. It's too large to hold in your mouth; too solid to break apart and chew up; and so dense with revelation it would take a year to get it all. And isn't that the whole point of a new word for this new year? We must put it between our back teeth and our cheek and hold it in our jaw for hours as it slowly melts into the most richly flavored truth.  I often pull verses apart into phrases and groupings of words. For the longest time here were my favorite group of words in this text: who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine These words always challenged me to dream larger and pray bigger because I could never out-ask or out-imagine God. Add to that, these words: according to his power that is at work These eight words were like lighter fluid on the fire of the thirteen words that preceded them. Nothing was impossible with God. It reminds me of the children's song: "My God is so big, so strong and so mighty, there's nothing my God cannot do for you." My reading of this text for so many years centered around the incomprehensible, unstoppable power of God ever accessible through our prayers—just ask bigger, larger, longer, and more. Until one day, I finally noticed the two words I now believe to be the power point of the whole text and the larger surrounding context.  within us Let's push the Jawbreaker text from one cheek across our tongue and into the other cheek and say the whole verse: Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, How had I missed those two little words—within us? Had they been asleep over in the corner? Or had I just wanted to pray big, bold prayers and leave it to God to somehow work it out for us; like perhaps just through the air or by his invisible hand?  As a rule, God does his immeasurably-more-than-all-we-ask-or-imagine-according-to-his-power-that-is-at-work—work . . . wait for it . . .  within us.  This is the miracle. God infuses his wonder-working, evil-crushing, sin-defeating, compassion-doing, gift-giving, sickness-healing, prophecy-fulfilling, grace-transforming, justice-working, mercy-moving, love-lifting power  within us, and then he moves it through us into others as the answer to their prayers. The sovereign miracles from the sky happen, but they are the exception. The rule of God's immeasurably-more-than-all-we-ask-or-imagine-according-to-his-power-that-is-at-work—is done:  within us. Okay, now shift the Jawbreaker over to the other cheek because there's a ton more. We see a coupling of two words repeated twice in today's text. It tells us that "us" is not the thrust of the text. You saw those words, didn't you? We are going to shift the jawbreaker text over to the other cheek and those two words repeated twice will come clear to us.  Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. to him.  Okay, you got time for one more power word from this Jawbreaker of a text today? It was the first one.  Now!  THE PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION Lord Jesus—Word of God from before the beginning—our Great Teacher, I marvel at the way you entrust and invest your immeasurably-more-than-all-we-ask-or-imagine power within us. And I'll just say it so my mouth can pray it and my ears can hear it—within me. You have hidden yourself within me that you might reveal yourself through me to others, by the power of your love to do the very same kinds of things you did when you walked this earth. Wake me up to this reality. And thank you for the Jawbreaker.  It will be for your glory, for others' gain, and for our good.   Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise him all creatures here below. Praise him above ye heavenly host. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen!