“Who do you think you are?”

It’s a question that, for some reason, I’ve been asking myself in recent days.

And it has pushed me to other pointed questions during quiet moments away from the rush of life and, sometimes, in the midst of it.

Here are some that I’ve been grappling with:

“Are you nonchalant in the presence of the Creator of the universe? Do you ever ponder the intricacy of your soul and your body? Are you less than respectful of the greatest royalty ever known?”

It’s not a fire-and-brimstone inner interrogation, just a calm flow of weighty questions.

“Are you dismissive of the supernatural courage of Christ’s early followers? Are you dismissive of the martyrs’ faith through the ages, even today in lands of turmoil, repression and violence?

“Are you apathetic about the magnitude of Jesus’ call to love one another? Are you too sheepish to tell others about the transformative faith you’ve experienced time after time?

“Are you giving short shrift to God’s forgiveness through Christ’s death and resurrection? Are you too earth-bound to ponder the prospect of heaven?”

There’s a wealth of Scripture that’s relevant to the questions I’ve been confronted with.

Here’s one, a prayer of the apostle Paul in Ephesians 1:17-19:

“I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what is the wealth of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe….” (CSB).

And another, from Ephesians 3:16-19:

^“I pray that he may grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power in your inner being through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. I pray that you, being rooted and firmly established in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width, height and depth of God’s love, and to know Christ’s love that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”

So, put me on your prayer list. And perhaps ask a friend or two to put you on theirs.

(EDITOR’S NOTE – Art Toalston is a writer based in Nashville and a former editor of Baptist Press.)