In the lines below you will find a formula that will change your life. If you follow it, it will make you a happier person. Not only will it reduce the level of stress you face. It will eliminate every true worry you have. It is not a gimmick. While it costs you nothing, it is guaranteed to work. Are you interested?
Here it is: begin each day with the prayer that God would open your eyes to the meaning of His ascension. Ask that “the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places” (Eph. 1:18-20).
An Important Prayer
Each new day brings us the need to remember our Savior’s ascension. Around us we see the hopelessness of a world that grows increasingly wicked and is lost in sin. Against us we see the powers of darkness stalking our every move. Within us we see the failure to overcome temptation and the rottenness of lives that are wracked by sin. Above us, however, is our ascended Lord and Savior of whom the Psalmist wrote: “Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive” (Ps. 68:18).
Jesus ascended to His heavenly throne as the Victor over our enemies of sin, death, hell, and the devil. In two words, His ascension means “mission accomplished.” What He planned in eternity He fulfilled in time. His victory is our victory by faith. Though our battle against sin rages on and though we register a long list of losses each hour, through the tears of penitent eyes we quietly rejoice that the war has already been won. “Who shall lay anything to the charge against God’s elect?” Paul asks rhetorically. “It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us” (Rom. 8:33ff).
A Daily Prayer
Each new day the unknown stretches out before us. For this reason also we need to have our eyes opened to His ascension. Far from leaving us to fend for ourselves, Jesus is now seated “far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named . . . And (God) hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church.”
Each day we are assured that His unfathomable power is being used for our benefit. People may think that things happen by chance, but they don’t. We may struggle under the burden of anxious care, but we shouldn’t. It may seem that the church will eventually fail due to the wickedness of the world, but then, high above everyone and everything, is the authority of Christ, our ascended Lord. When the dust settles at the end of time, everyone will see that He shaped all of history for the sake of His elect, the Church.
Before you spend another anxious moment, stop and pray. Before you get stressed out over next month’s mortgage payment or how you are going to survive, remember Who is on the throne. Before you throw up your arms in despair over the plunging morality of this country and wonder how your children and theirs will ever make it, stop and remember that they too have the hope of His calling and are under the care of Him Who has absolute power. Ask God to open your eyes to the meaning of His ascension.
–Pastor James Albrecht