Under Christ

UNDER CHRIST

a prayer to open

Here I am, Lord. Remind me who I am.

I am loved. I am known. I belong to you.

God has now revealed to us his mysterious will regarding Christ—which is to fulfill his own good plan. And this is the plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ—everything in heaven and on earth. Furthermore, because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for he chose us in advance, and he makes everything work out according to his plan.

What is God doing in the world, through the church, and in our lives? Through Christ, Paul said, we know. History is not hurtling toward some unknown end or progressing without design and intention. Rather, God is bringing everything in heaven and on earth together under the authority of Christ. All the warring and violent, broken and dysfunctional, hurting and desperate pieces within this world—and, indeed, within us—are being brought together under the authority of Christ. Everything in heaven. Everything on earth. Everything in your house, at your work, in your community, in your mind and heart. Everything.

• Where in your life can you see significant change since you have been following Jesus? What has changed? How would you describe that change to a friend?
• What in yourself do you currently long to have brought under the authority of Christ? Is it a thought pattern, a desire, a compulsion? Ask God to help you open the place where that particular issue is lodged and allow it to be brought under the authority of Christ.
• Take a moment to quiet yourself in God’s loving presence. Ask him to open your eyes and heart to the ways he wants you to live more fully into the truth that you, having put your trust in Jesus, have placed yourself under the authority of Christ. What did God bring to mind?

Father, thank you for revealing your will to unify all things under the authority of Jesus Christ. I know all the parts of me that rebel against you in big and small ways. Help me submit those parts to you so you may transform them. Open my eyes to see the way you are working in the midst of the disunity and conflict in my life and in the world. I pray, Father, that I would be an instrument of your peace and unity, that I would be someone who ushers your Kingdom into the torn-apart places, and that you would use me to reveal Christ, the hope of glory. Amen.