eternal plan

Ephesians 3

I am so thankful for a healthy, beautiful baby boy.  The Lord has blessed us with our second son, Jude.  One of the reasons I liked the name Jude was for Jude 24-25:

 ²⁴ To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— ²⁵ to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.

Footnotes:

1. Jude 1:1 Or by; or in
2. Jude 1:4 Or individuals who were marked out for condemnation
3. Jude 1:5 Some early manuscripts Jesus
4. Jude 1:9 Jude is alluding to the Jewish Testament of Moses (approximately the first century A.D.).
5. Jude 1:15 From the Jewish First Book of Enoch (approximately the first century B.C.)
6. Jude 1:23 The Greek manuscripts of these verses vary at several points.

This weekend, we drove up to Albuquerque to see the hot air balloon fiesta.  It was great!  Beau loved it.

When I read in Eph. 3 about God's mysterious, eternal plan being revealed and accomplished through Christ and His Church, I am both encouraged and overwhelmed.  As I consider the routine of my daily/weekly schedule, I feel like my life is not so eternal.

 ¹² Because of Christ and our faith in him, we can now come boldly and confidently into God's presence. ...

 ¹⁴ When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, ¹⁵ the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. ¹⁶ I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. ¹⁷ Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God's love and keep you strong. ¹⁸ And may you have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. ¹⁹ May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

 ²⁰ Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. ²¹ Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen.

I know that I should be maturing spiritually, and I should be growing closer to the Lord.  I want to experience these verses, but I feel pretty tired these days.  I feel like my tiredness precludes me from experiencing these verses.  I guess, sometimes I feel like that dusty maroon balloon we saw yesterday, struggling to get inflated and off the ground.  But I suppose that I simply have to trust that if I submit myself to the Lord's plan and timing, he will carry me home.

Heavenly Father, I love you, and I need you.  I am nothing without you.  I know that you have blessed me so abundantly with faith in Christ, a wonderful family, a great job, .... but sometimes, I feel like an old farm truck spinning it's tires.  Please help me make traction and move forward, or up, depending on the analogy.  I know you are working, and I know it is an opportunity to grow in my faith when I can't exactly see it, but it's tough sometimes, you know?  Holy Spirit, please empower me with inner strength, and lead my heart to rest in Christ and trust Him.  I pray in the name of Jesus Christ, my savior.