There are no scripted prayers for the next two weeks. As you meditate on Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians, identify passages in the readings that you could make into prayers. Literally pray the text – whether it is in request or celebration or thanksgiving or intercession. Put the words of Scripture into your mouth as prayer.

MONDAY, March 11

Ephesians 1:1-14

Consider how many times the apostle Paul uses the word we. He does not say you or they. He says we. Have you ever thought about the reality that the Church is defined as we? The apostles, the prophets, the teachers and preachers of the past – the converted Jew, the pagan who comes to Christ, the beggar, the leper, the Ephesian witches, the repentant sinner? All part of the Church with us. The Church spans ages, languages, generations and differences. The Church is not about me. It is about we.

Tuesday, March 12

Ephesians 1:15-22

Is there any higher calling for the church than the glorification of Jesus Christ? Paul does not seem to think so. Jesus is the Everything in the Church. And perhaps the great weakness of many churches is the focus on anything but Jesus, even the focus on a caricature of Him that we do not find in the Scriptures. Truly, he must be “above every name that is named” (v 22) in the Church.

And does Church end at the building on Sunday? No! It is the relationships of Christ’s followers to one another. It is everything – our homes, our work places, our sports fields. Church is living out the glory of Jesus Christ.