Prayers of Paul 06

Ephesians 3
14For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, 16that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, 17that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—19to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
20Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, 21to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

What a prayer! Paul is covering every way available for us to experience God’s complete and perfect presence in our lives. He prays to the Father; asks for the strengthening of the Holy Spirit; and desires for Christ to take up residence within believers. Paul wants believers to be strengthened in their inner man; to have hearts that are fit to be dwelling places for Christ; and to have minds that can grasp and possess the multi-dimensional and infinite love of God. In short, he wants the believers to be complete in God through experiencing (or being filled by) His fullness. But how can we as finite beings contain all of God’s infinite fullness? It seems impossible!

The answer lies in the fact that Paul is praying to a God “who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think.” This infinite God loves us so much that He actually made a Way for weak, finite, sinful humans to become acceptable vessels to contain His presence and power. What Way?… through simple faith in Jesus Christ.

But there’s a catch! No individual believer or group of believers can comprehend all that is God. It will require “all the saints” to contain all that God wants to give of Himself. In other words, it is in the Church universal, the Bride of Christ, which God has chosen to deposit His divine attributes. This is not the flawed and divided form of the Church that is currently visible. It is the pure, spotless Church that Jesus Himself is building and for which He will ultimately return.

Let’s praise God for indwelling us with His presence and power!