So what do we do with this? One direction we could go would be to doubt the incredible greatness of God's power. Many people slowly drift in that direction. It's not that they stop believing in God, but rather they just quietly accept the status quo of reality as they know it, passively lower their expectations, swim in the shallow end of church, and do their best to make the most of their middle to upper middle class life. There's a better way. Let's call that the way of Holy Discontent. That's the path to awakening. Rather than allowing our experience, or lack thereof to lead us to doubt God's word, we can stand firmly on the veracity of God's word and allow its authority to question our experience. This is the way of holy discontent. It's a willingness to question and doubt everything but the word of God. The way of Holy discontent means we hold on and press in for deeper understanding. It means not giving up, never letting go, asking until we receive, seeking until we find and knocking until the door is opened. And it means banding together with a few others who will walk this way with us. Let's call ourselves the fellowship of the Holy Discontents. Let's pray. Abba Father, we thank you for your son Jesus, who calls us out of our comfort zones and beyond the barriers of our experience, daring us to step out of the comfort zone of the boat and to risk walking on water. We want to understand and experience your incomparably great power. Forgive us for settling for less. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. The journal prompts Today. Have you allowed your experience, or lack thereof of God's power to cause you to question texts like today's? Do you think there is more to the incredible greatness of God's power than you presently understand or experience? And have you allowed yourself to drift into a kind of passive doubt? Or are you ready to join the fellowship of the holy discontents? Those are good questions. I hope you'll take a minute or more to reflect on today. A couple more Comments? This is, this is crux level material here, friends. He's praying. Paul in Ephesians chapter one. There's two very significant prayers in Ephesians. We're on the first one now. I call them the prayers for Great Awakening. This is the first one. And then the next one will be in Ephesians chapter three. We'll come to it. Two prayers. Paul's praying. He is praying for us to wake up. And this first one, you know, we started on it last week, but this last phrase of it, you know, he prayed for hope. He prayed that we'd come to know our inheritance, the riches of our inheritance in the saints. But then he says, and of his incomparably. That's the old Niv. I love the. His incomparably great power for us who believe. Like. And then he says it's the same power by which he raised Jesus Christ from the dead. I mean, just full stop, guys, can you just contemplate that? The very power by which God raised Jesus from the dead, he wants us to grasp, to understand, to experience and to express. That's what God wants for your life and my life for his people. And he wants it. Yeah, he wants it for the. For the sake of the world. This is how God works in the world. Through people. Through people like you and me and us together. And first off, it's so easy just to read right past that and not pay much attention. But second, it's easy just to sort of say, okay, got it checked, whatever. But what I'm wanting you to do is underline it, highlight it, get it out, copy it down, write it down, remember, Ize it, pray it. This is a prayer. Father, would you help me understand, experience and express your incomparably great power for us? Who believes? I'm just not. I've decided, and I did many years ago. I'm not letting go, I'm holding on. And guys, I have. I'm seeing it more than I have ever seen it before because there's a sense in which, like, it takes a long time for that power to actually just start churning inside of us, making the kind of change, growing us up, right? He first wakes us up, then he grows us up, and then he. He blows us up. And I mean that in the best sense of the term. He begins to move his power through us. First he's with us, then he's in us, then he's through us. And that's a journey. And it requires holding on and believing and leaning in and persisting, not trying harder to do more, to be better. But really letting go, leaning in, abiding, that's the journey takes it. It takes time, but it. It takes coming to the place of honesty and saying, you know, there's a lot more about Jesus that I don't know than that I do. And I just. I just have a splinter in my soul. I have a holy discontent, and I'm not letting go. Jesus, I want to know you more. Remember, that's how he started praying. Pray that you will know. Open the eyes of your heart, right, so that you may know Jesus better. That's what this is about. It's not about having power. It's about knowing Jesus better. Power comes with that. But can you reach that place of holy discontent? That's. That's the door. That's the buy in, if you will. And it's, you know, it's not. There's a lot of unholy discontent. I've certainly had that. Let's just call that malcontent. That's a different thing. That's just complaining about everything in the universe, blaming it on somebody else and being a victim. Holy discontent is saying, I see you, Jesus. I saw. I see what you did when you were on the earth. And I'm beginning to grasp that you were doing that because you wanted to show me what could be possible in my life and in my time. That kind of love. That's the other journey. The journey from wanting power to wanting love and realizing that love is actually the power. The power is love. So I don't know. That's enough commentary for me today. I'm just wanting to welcome you into this fellowship because this is the pathway to the real deal. Let's sing today. I'm going to sing again. I'm going to pull out the song. I think we sang it a week ago Monday, the first day. It's going to be with you by myself. Singing today. It's a chorus probably from the late 90s.
