All Things
He, for whom and by whom all things exist. (Heb. 2:10)
Heb 2:5-10, 1:1-3 and 10:12-22; Psa. 19:1; Psa. 62:11-12; Mt. 19:26, 21:22 and 28:18
What Is God Saying?
Hebrews is more of a treatise than a letter. It opens with a clear statement of who Jesus Christ was and is (Heb. 1:3) without doubt or equivocation. It has a recurring theme: Christ is superior to the priests and the prophets and also to the laws and sacrifices of the Old Testament. A person walking with his back to the morning sun casts a shadow before him. So these shadows were cast in advance of Christ's coming. From Him ‘The sun of righteousness is risen with healing in his wings.’ There is nothing wrong with a shadow, but the real thing is not the shadow. The Old Testament points to that which is better. No further sacrifice is required. Jesus is the final, the complete, and the perfect Sacrifice.
‘God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself' (II Cor. 5:19). He is God ‘for whom and by whom all things exist’—all power, all authority, all life, all truth, all glory. Jesus Christ is not an angel or a prophet or a lesser god. He is God. It was the Almighty yet all-loving God who gave Himself for us.
How Does This Apply To Us?
‘Therefore, holy brethren, who share in a heavenly call, consider Jesus’ (Heb. 3:1). Think about Him! If we have such a God, who loves us so much, and if everything in the universe is for Him and by Him, we may ask of Him anything and we owe Him everything. He wants us to give Him our lives- our time and talents, our hopes and dreams, our ambitions and desires. He even wants our failures, problems, and mistakes. He wants to refine the impurities, heal the blemishes, and make His strength perfect in our weakness. He wants us not to enhance His greatness or to prove His authority since ‘for him and by him, all things (already) exist’ (Heb 2:10). He wants us because He loves us. He wants us that ‘his joy may be in us and that our joy may be full’ (Jn. 15:11).
Pray With Me
God of creation, I look out upon the world of visible beauty and I think about the significance of all that is invisible but not less real. I rejoice in the fact that all things, seen and unseen, known and unknown, past, present, and future, exist for the glory of Your Son and by the word of His power. May everything, especially things for a season in my control, be for Your glory.
• For You be the breath I draw, the songs I sing, and the books I read.
• For You be the hours that come and go, the blessings I enjoy and the sufferings I endure.
• For You be the rising of the sun and the planting of the seed and the gathering of the harvest.
• For You be my laboring and my resting, my struggling and my yielding, my succeeding and my failing.
• For You be any honor I receive or any recognition I think I should receive.
• For You be everything that man can control and everything he will never control.
• For You, let all things exist.
Lord, nothing is impossible with You. As the potter has control over the clay, so nothing in this world is beyond the reach of Your power. Let all things that are made by Your power be for Your glory, especially the love and service of this heart.
I approach the Throne of Grace, Lord Jesus, in Your strong and wonderful name. Amen.
Moving On In The Life of Prayer
Prayer becomes powerful and effective to the extent that we are conscious of God's unlimited power and know that we are invited to draw upon it freely. This is why His love is so amazing. He wants us to pray. He wants us to believe. He wants us to receive what He has to give. He wants us to receive more than we dare to ask.
Prayer is tapping into that inexhaustible reservoir of grace and power, realizing that all things exist for and by our Lord, claiming what God has promised, and receiving what God wants us to have.
