That probably sounds pretty arrogant...but it is a Scriptural prayer. Look at the prayer Paul prayed in Ephesians 3:16-20 (this was our SOAP chapter for yesterday):
I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength— that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you’ll be able to take in with all Christians the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.
Notice the words there: "extravagant dimensions, experience the breadth, test its length, plumb the depths of His love." That is a BIG life. it is not BIG in the way the world may define BIG, but it is so much BIGGER than what "they" have in mind. Our God has a BIG life for each of us. It is BIG enough to encompass the hurting, the lonely, the sick, the less privileged, those "different" from us, to our neighbors, our co-workers, our friends, our relatives, to anyone God brings across our path.
Notice though that we have to open the door to that life. Remember in Revelation that Jesus stands at the door and knocks? He doesn't kick the door down and barge in on us. He stands and knocks, waiting for us to open it.
The problem is that living a BIG life in God can be inconvenient of uncomfortable for us. Even more, it means that life is so big we no longer feel in control of it. And we don't like that.
Yet time and again in Scripture, Jesus invites us to live the BIG life He intended. Look at Paul's prayer for us in 2 Corinthians 6:11-13:
Dear, dear Corinthians, I can’t tell you how much I long for you to enter this wide-open, spacious life. We didn’t fence you in. The smallness you feel comes from within you. Your lives aren’t small, but you’re living them in a small way. I’m speaking as plainly as I can and with great affection. Open up your lives. Live openly and expansively!
Will you dare pray and ask Jesus to show you how to live this BIG life? Will you open the door to the BIG life God has for you?
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