The upside of living in a beautiful country…

…like Canada or the USA is we want for very little. The downside of living in Canada or the USA is we want for very little. The power of God is often missed, written off as part of our everyday lives. It is difficult to see God as active in our lives unless we make an effort to look for Him in action. In countries less fortunate than ours, every day is a day to discover the depth of God’s love for His children. God is seen, felt and heard in the activities of the day and His provision and protection are obvious to those who call Him their Heavenly Father.

Here in our relative comfort and prosperity, the need for God’s intervention is often not realized until life itself is threatened by what cannot be planned for or avoided.

Events that in some countries are life altering are minor inconveniences to us. We don’t find ourselves on our knees pleading for our daily bread or to be delivered from evil very often if ever. I do not wish this type of life on anyone but I see the advantages to a person’s faith journey when God is all you have.

This week maybe we should try praying…

…the same prayer that Paul prayed: “…I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3:17b-19.

Not that we will end up in desperate times in our lives but rather we will view life as a desperate pursuit of more of God. That we will explore the love that has no end and the power that has no limits. To live in the comfort we have may not easily reveal our need for God every moment of every day but it is no excuse to forget that God is always there allowing and stopping, empowering and limiting.

May our lives be lived in such a way that He “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.” Ephesians 3:20-21