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Good Tuesday morning dear friends,
When you think of the ‘power of prayer’, what comes to your mind? Any personal experience that you’ve had that is an important part of your spiritual journey, maybe even a miracle?
Around the world, and down through history, PRAYER has been both a mystery to many and the source of great life-sustaining power for others. In our fast-paced, sophisticated, highly tech oriented lifestyle in 2019, prayer seems obsolete to many western Christians. Sadly, in way too many churches and families, it has become little more than a flippant tradition.
But… today, I’d like to help us re-discover some of the power available to us in this miracle of prayer in Ephesians 3:14-21, will you join me?
For Paul, prayer was an essential part of his life, not just a daily moment or two. “In Him (Jesus) and through faith in Him (the reality of Jesus’ death, resurrection, ascension and present reign in glory), we may approach God with freedom and confidence. (Eph. 3:12) For this reason, I kneel before the Father, from whom His whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name.” (Eph. 3:14)
Paul approaches God in prayer as BOTH Almighty, Majesty who is in authority over all things, in all places, at all times…and also heavenly Father, who has adopted into His love and family, every person from anywhere in the world, who has been purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ.
Do you see the ‘both / and’ approach? POWER and LOVE. POWER of the Majestic Sovereign Creator God who is able to do anything, and LOVE of our heavenly Father who knows everything about us and loves us unconditionally. Is that how you approach God in prayer my friends… safe and welcomed by His Power & Love!?
Then Paul continues “I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.” (3:17) What do you see Paul requesting of God for his friends in Ephesus, and all Christians of all time?
Remember Paul lived a hard life… no wife or children to love him, no home to come home to each night after work, no bank account he was padding for retirement. His call from God kept him on the road, usually on foot, taking the Gospel from town to town, writing the Gospel in letters usually from prison, being rejected more than accepted, and beaten, or stoned or starved way too often!
Paul needed supernatural strength, patience and resolve just to live each day. . . but he realized many of Christians of his day were experienced similar persecution as they trusted Jesus with their lives. Some lost their jobs, some were thrown out of their families or homes, some were beaten or even killed. Power, strength was needed just to survive!
Now you and I don’t live in such difficult times…but many of our fellow Christians do in other parts of our world. However, what would your life be like if the power of God that sustained Paul was the same power unleashed from God into your life, today? What difference would that make for you? Paul is urging us to ask! Ask God for more of His power in our daily lives, which will enable us to live each day more like Jesus would live, if He was in our shoes, our relationships, facing the challenges of life we face!
Next Paul asks for supernatural LOVE, do you see it? “And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the LOVE of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” (3:17-19)
From the moment of Paul’s conversion on that Damascus road, most of the people Paul encountered, for the rest of his life, were opposed to him and his message, think about that, my friends. While he found some in each place he went, who over time, trusted Paul’s Gospel, and then turned to Jesus, and were transformed by God, for many of those it didn’t come quick or easy, and for many more, they never believed. Now think about that… what kept this man going day after day, when he was rejected more than accepted? When he faced anger much more than love? When he was hit more often than hugged?
All of us welcome affirmation, appreciation, words of encouragement even affection, right? None of us welcomes rejection, abandonment, anger. But Paul, understanding that a follower of Jesus will face much of the same opposition Jesus faced, prays here for the Power of Love! Only when a follower of Jesus is convinced that God loves them deeply, unconditionally, as a beloved son or daughter, will the Power of God’s loves sustain us in difficulty. Do you agree with that statement friends?
If you believe God’s love is CONDITIONAL…that God will love you only when you obey Him, or only when you are doing spiritual things, or only if you do holy and right things. . .then you have a very distorted understanding of God’s love, and my friends that distortion will actually turn you bitter, rather than drawn you into a love relationship with God.
Do you remember Romans 5:8? “While we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” That is one of many verses which proves God’s love for us does not depend on our BEHAVIOR or even our response to God!
One of the great and consistent themes of the Bible story is the consistent, powerful, life changing LOVE of God! You and I can never fully grasp it, but we can try, and the more we experience God’s powerful love, the more it actually EMPOWERS us in facing the challenges of our day.
Watch this friends… it’s God’s love poured into us, that empowers us to love the people who have hurt us, or gossiped about us, or rejected us, or broken their promises to us, or cheated us. We’ve done all those things to God, yet He still loves us deeply…and as we understand and receive that unconditional love from Him, we are then able to extend it to others!
Did you hear that friends? Consider 1 John 4:9,10 “Now this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and gave His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins…” As we understand and receive that unconditional love from God, then we’re able to extend it to other people. That’s what Paul is praying you and I will experience here in Ephesians 3. Now I urge you to ponder that deeply… it’s miraculous, it’s life changing. Living EMPOWERED by God’s Unconditional Love is radical! So, how to you measure God’s unconditional love for YOU,my friend?
Finally, look at this, Paul writes: “Now to Him (God the Father) who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus, throughout all generations, for ever and ever, Amen.” (Eph. 3:20,21) That my friends is one of the most powerful statements in the Bible! And, it’s Paul’s prayer for you and me, today!
I urge you to take it word by word, phrase by phrase, and ask the Holy Spirit to soak you in it’s truth, to penetrate your heart and mind with it. I challenge you with it friends.
Do you believe God can do immeasurably more than anything you could ever ask God for or imagine? Do you believe God unleashes His power into normal people like you and me? Do you believe God wants to bring great glory to Himself through your life, your family, your church?
Then I have a question or two for us to ponder today. . .
1. What’s holding me back from that kind of praying, seeking God’s Power and God’s Love filling my life so I can live in power and love for those people I don’t like?
2. What’s preventing my prayer life becoming like Paul’s?
3. What is holding my church back from being filled with God’s Power and God’s Love, as Paul prayed for it?
4. What’s preventing God from empowering me with both His power and His love, so He can do in and through me more than I could ever ask or imagine?
Would you agree these 7 little verses could change our lives, if we lived them as we ‘walk with Jesus’?
So…why not start today?
Oh Lord Jesus Christ…my Savior and my Lord…
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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