Strengthening Our Inner Being

I pray that, according the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit . . .” (Ephesians 3.16b)


My mother teaches school.  She’s on block scheduling, so for an hour and a half each day she has planning period.  She learned a long time ago that part of her planning period must be devoted to writing letters to people in her community.  Hand written letters.  Not emails. She believes in the art of handwritten letters, and by spending her time writing to other people she strengthens her inner being.

I had a professor in college, he was the epitome of ‘absent-minded professor,’ but every day he would shut and lock his office door at lunchtime, take off his shoes, and eat barefooted on the floor.  He argues he is never as close to God in any other moment in life than in that time.  The intentionality he gives in the thirty minutes on the floor strengthens his inner being.

A friend of mine spends every Monday evening taking yoga lessons.  She says that the combination of concentration and strength as well as the added level of discipline helps her strengthen her inner being.

What I have noticed about my mother, my professor, and my friend is that they all live out of their inner being.  They are so well connected with who God has made them to be that they can’t help but live out of this strength.

On some level or another we all desire to be this way.  We all want to get closer to God.  We all want to move out from the circumference of our lives and deepen ourselves to become more centered.  We want to feel whole instead of frazzled, secure instead of incomplete, and present instead of absent.  We just have to figure what connects with the divine and start implementing it into our lives.

What I love about my mother, professor, and friend is that they incorporate communing with God as a daily ritual in their lives and they all do it in different ways.

There's not a one-size-fits-all way to doing spirituality.  You know you better than anybody else and you know what your body/soul needs.  Start there and figure out how it realigns you to the divine and implement it into your weekly schedule.  Just think how amazing it would be to know you are growing, maturing, hoping, striving, enjoying, partaking, investing, and strengthening your inner being!

And as a pastor, I can't help but to remind you that the church can be a catalyst for this growth, a conduit for this change, as well as hold you accountable on this journey.  At least that's my hope for the church – that it genuinely attempts to strengthen your inner being by creating avenues for connecting with the divine and growing in the grace of God.

Ephesians reminds us that we must strive to strengthen our inner being -- how do you plan to do just that?

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