“And in Him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.” Ephesians 2:22
My wife came home from work yesterday in a sour mood. Which isn’t usual, but is usually not a problem. As a couple we tend to be opposites together in mood. When I am down, she picks me up, and vice versa. The only problem was, my mood was dour as well. When she started whining, I said… ‘here’s a quarter… find..!’ NO… I didn’t say that. But she knew. “Wanna go on a bike ride?” she asked.
We have a tandem bicycle. WIFE finds exercise stimulating… I find it work. But not wanting to remain in this mutually depressing mood, I agreed. So we saddled up and headed out on a long ride. “Hey.. did you see that?” I asked. “No,” she replied. “Wanna go back,” I asked? “NO!,” was her response. Peddle, peddle, peddle (OBVIOUSLY, we weren’t there yet!). As she huffed, she asked, “doesn’t this bike wear you out? It does me!” “NO… it just makes me sweat!” ‘Still not there,’ I thought. As we approached our inclined driveway, she punctuated the moment… “This is me NOT peddling!” But I already knew that!
In the verse today the word ‘YOU’ is plural. Had Paul been born in south Tarshish he’d a said “Ya’ll!” The verse written by ‘himself’ talks about all believers in Christ, and that we are ‘ALL’ under construction ‘together,’ becoming the dwelling in which He now lives by His Spirit! Some days are Awesome. Others are simply uphill, where peddling just doesn’t get us there. But days like that are PERFECT times for God to remind me that HE is the one doing all the steering and MOST of the peddling!
Every once in a while I see a Bible verse that gives me a glimpse, or hint, of what our future in Heaven will be like. Ephesians 2:4-7 is one that jumped out today. It is too long to write out here, but if you want, you can peddle to it and maybe get a glimpse yourself. The point is that this life is a construction project. GOD is building something VERY special and ‘WE’ are His bricks.
Sometimes in life we Believers can get down and realize that ‘we aren’t there yet.’ Reading this chapter in Ephesians today, I recognize that MAGNIFICENCE is on the way because GOD guarantees it! And my NOT peddling sometimes, is OK. In fact, sometimes that is EXACTLY what He expects from me!