The Messenger 12
Introduction
Prompted by what we find in Ephesians chapter three, prayer has been the topic of the last few reflections. The more we think about prayer, the more appreciate just how important it is. It is what enables us to reach beyond the confines of time and space and to dialogue with the Father.
Think of it as a conversation rather than a monologue where we do all the talking and God does all the listening. It is a conversation that is initiated and prompted from God’s side rather than our own. He acts – something He does for us, something He shows us, something He says to us through His Word – and we respond.
Just think about that for a moment. What prompted Paul’s prayers in chapter one and chapter three of Ephesians? And what determined the specific content of those prayers? It was surely the initiative the Father had taken in revealing to Paul the things He had planned before time had even begun and was now working out through His Son, Jesus. Not only had this become the topic of Paul’s letter to the Church, but it had awakened in him a passionate longing that all believers would see what he had seen and would know what he now knew. Those prayers of intercession and the specific contents of those prayers arose from the Father’s initiative in Paul’s life.
It is a bit like that with us too. Our prayer responses are prompted by God’s initiatives in reaching out to us. If we thank Him, it is because His Spirit has pointed out to us the Father’s blessings in one form or another. It we praise Him, it is in response to the revelation of His glory, wisdom and love. If we confess our sins to Him, it is because of the conviction of the Holy Spirit at work in us. If we feel compelled to intercede for others, it is in response to those needs in others that have been laid on our heart by the Spirit. If we pray for our own needs, it is because our spiritual eyes have been opened to recognise the enormity of the Father’s love and purpose for our life.
As we continue now with our reflections on Paul’s prayer, we will focus on the specifics of what he prayed for the believers.
The specifics
Three very specific requests form the basis of Paul’s intercession on behalf of the saints.
1. Firstly, he asks the Father to strengthen the believers “with power through the Spirit so that Christ could dwell (feel at home) in their hearts through faith” (3:17).
Take a few moments to reflect on the meaning and implication of that request for your own life. Listen carefully. God is wanting us to see His wonderful intent and purpose for our life. Now what do you think your response to Him should be?
In the final verse of that well known hymn “When I survey the wondrous cross”, Isaac Watts sums up the kind of response from His children that God deserves:
Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.
2. Secondly, Paul prays that the saints “being rooted and established in love, may have the power to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know that love that surpasses knowledge.” The Greek word translated “grasp” in Ephesians literally means “to lay hold of so as to make it one’s own, to seize, to take possession of” (Wuest).
Paul’s reason for making this specific request is “in order that you (the believer) may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” What an incredible thought. Salvation may be a vital starting-point for all who see the need to connect with God through Jesus. We need to remember, however, that it is just that – a starting-point. It is the beginning of a wonderful journey of faith and discovery for the Christian. Without that beginning we can neither enter nor see the Kingdom of God. But it does not end there!
The subject of Paul’s prayer, prompted by what God had revealed to him, is a request that the Spirit would enable the saints to be taken on an exciting journey of faith and discovery that plants God’s love ever deeper in their life. Do you see in that specific request of Paul what God’s intention is for your life? He wants you to be rooted and established in His love. Writes Paul Van Buren in his Blog: “To grasp the magnitude of Jesus’ love is an overwhelming thing that lifts us and carries us through all of this life’s difficulties and burdens. Grasping this changes everything, and I mean everything, in our lives. How we walk, talk, act, sing, feel, see, understand, perceive. This is a transforming love.”
3. Thirdly, In verse 19, Paul goes on to pray that “the saints may know God’s love that surpasses knowledge.” The Greek word know means “experiential knowledge.” It is like a child recognizing the mother’s love in all that the mother has done and sacrificed for the child and then feeling that love as the arms of the mother encompass it in a special hug. Why was Paul motivated to pray that we may know God’s love like this? The answer surely is because of God’s initiative in Paul’s life. He had been completely transformed by that experience. Now he longs for others to know and experience that too.
As you go through that prayer of Paul you are left with the sense that that is precisely where God wants to take us as His children. From imparting to us a conceptual understanding of His love in His revealing to us the enormity of what Christ has done on our behalf, the Spirit then wants to take us into an experiential understanding of that love. It is as though the Father wants to put His loving arms around us and hug us until our hearts are flooded with a knowledge of that love (Romans 5:5). He wants us to know that we are loved beyond anything we could have imagined.
There are times, however, when we go through God’s Word and it appears not to offer us comfort. Instead it seems to disturb. We feel a sense of conviction. And rightly so, for Christians are not above living with denial or complacency or even moral and spiritual compromise. Besides all of us have blind spots that prevent us from seeing in ourselves things that other see all too clearly, things that compromise our witness for Christ. If, however, the Word sometimes disturbs us it is only because God loves us so much that He does not want us to miss out on all that He has planned for us in Christ. The discomfort that comes with discovering the truth about ourselves is always tempered by the knowledge that He loves us – not because of anything we have tried to be or do – but because it is within His nature to love. The cause of His love towards us lies within Himself not within anything in us.
Why not use Paul’s prayer right now as a basis for your own conversation with the Father? Expect Him to answer – it is His will for you and those you love. He has taken the initiative and made His will known. Now He waits on your response to Him.
If you have a question or a comment about this series please feel free to write to me, Brian, at
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