Hotdogs – Ephesians 3:16

Ephesians 3:16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being,

Have you ever watched a hotdog eating contest? It is amazing how fast the contestants can eat a hotdog, and just how many they can eat in such a limited timeframe. The world record holder, Joey Chestnut, ate 76 hotdogs and buns in ten minutes this year.

I can tell you one thing for sure, his stomach had to be stretched, his throat had to be widened and he had to practice swallowing unchewed food. I’m not sure how many pounds of hotdog and how many bags of rolls that was, but I can imagine it covering quite a large table. And he got it all to fit in his stomach!

The capacity to stretch the limits of human capabilities is amazing. Think about the amazing athleticism of the Olympic athletes. It took years of training and dedication to reach those levels of attainment.

The LORD wants to stretch us. He wants to increase our capability to be vessels for Him to fill. You can’t just ask the Creator of the Universe to fully occupy you. You would burst. The stretching would be too much for you. The Infinite God can’t be contained in a finite creation without His power added to us.

This is what our text begins to explore, this stretching and strengthening process that the LORD works into and through us. He does this so that Jesus can live in us. We don’t have the capability to contain Jesus. We need the Spirit to do His work, strengthening the part of us that will contain Jesus.

The deepest, most intimate place in our being is where the Holy Spirit does His work. He does this so that Jesus can fully live and work in and through us. Without the Spirit’s power at work in us, we would burst. But over time, the Spirit strengthens us, and Jesus dwells in us more and more.

We often call this process sanctification. And it is needed because to be like Jesus entails being willing to go places and endure things that are beyond human capacity to endure. He calls us to take up our cross daily. This process of self-denial, an ongoing and ever increasing call, lasts a lifetime. And the challenges get greater as we progress in the faith.

But there is good news! The Spirit is here, taking God’s glorious riches and strengthening us with those riches. It will be His power at work in us. His strength will be the strength that we need in those moments, and His strength is enough!

So whatever challenges He calls us to endure, we can endure, because His Spirit has strengthened us for the task. Just like Joey Chestnut, we must be in training every day. We must embrace today’s challenges, receive the Spirit’s strengthening, so that when the overwhelming challenges of the future arrive, we will have increased our capacity to tabernacle Jesus.