Empty Chairs

Spring break is over and no one came back.
Sunday services were yesterday but we did not meet physically.
There will be a Monday Night Devotional tonight at 7:30pm, only on social media.
Wednesday will be here soon and there will be no college students to feed.
For bible class, there will be empty chairs.

I love the prayer of Paul to the church at Ephesus. Paul, dealing with tribulation and writing from a prison cell, prays for the family of God. He prays that the church be strengthened, that God’s family be full of the Holy Spirit, that the church have faith, that the church be rooted in love, and to know that God’s love conquers all.

Ephesians 3:14-21

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Even though there are empty chairs, the church is not empty.
The church is full of young people serving God, worshipping God, and praying to God. They may not be at the building, but they are present in this world, showing the Light of God. May we be encouraged by Paul, that we be strengthened by the love of God and that He can do far more than what we think or ask.

The church may be empty, but the church is alive more than ever.