Paul's Prayer of Strength
Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3 is the climax of everything he has just laid out to the church in Ephesus. It’s as if Paul says “For this reason” I bow my knee that you might fully understand the blessing of God , the hope of his calling, the position you have in His kingdom, and the powerful message that you carry.
He’s praying that you might have the fullness of God within your inner self. Here are four ways to pray for the fullness of God:
#1. Pray for “STRENGTH” of heart.
Paul prays that He would grant you strength in the inner man. This word strength means to be made strong, tough, tenacious or enduring. He is praying to break loose the flesh’s power, so our spirit can be made strong. It’s the inner man of the heart and soul that we overcome things like temptation, trouble, sorrow, discouragement and fleshly desires.
“An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life. ‘A fight is going on inside me,’ he said to the boy. ‘It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil – he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.’ He continued, ‘The other is good – he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you – and inside every other person, too.” The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?’ The old Cherokee simply replied, ‘The one you feed.’
#2. Pray for SUBMISSION of heart.
Paul prays that Christ may dwell in your hearts. Jesus will never feel at home in our hearts until He feels welcome and comfortable in every room and secret chamber of our hearts. To dwell has the sense of being at home, settled, or a resident. Jesus wants full access to the home dwelling of your heart, every thought, every feeling, every hidden sin, every moment even when the “house is messy” … let me DWELL with you. Too many are afraid of a “foreclosure” of the heart, if Christ visits them. Jesus is not interested in foreclosing your heart, he is interested in remodeling your heart!
#3. Pray for SENSITIVITY of heart.
Paul prays that you might be rooted and grounded in the length, width, height and depth of God’s love. He uses an agricultural term “rooted” to express how we like a tree must put our roots deep into God that we might also reach the heights of the heavens with our branches. He also uses the term “grounded” meaning foundation of a building, that any additions we make, consider the width and length of the foundation before you build. Are you feeling distant from God? Has the storm been too long? Do the mountains seem too intimidating? Are you stuck in a bottomless pit of despair? Oh that you might be rooted and grounded in the love that can reach to any of those places!
#4. Pray for SATURATION of heart.
May you be filled with all the fullness of God. It’s hard to imagine a finite human being having the capacity to be filled with the infinite Creator God. Can we really be filled with His omnipresence? Omnipotence? Omniscience? What a bold prayer, but the heart of it is to experience something exceedingly, abundantly above and beyond our capacity to think or ask. This is what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit. I’m not saying that anyone of us can become God, but they can partner with Him and saturate their life with His fullness. We can either be saturated by TV, exercise, work, people, food and habitual sin, or we can be saturated in the presence of our Almighty God!
In Zechariah 4, the prophet sees a vision of a menorah between two olive branches and oil being poured through these branches to keep the candles burning. This vision was to illustrate how the ruler Zerubabbel and the priest Joshua would become conduits of God’s spirit to rebuild the nation of Israel. This is the word of the Lord to those two men and a nation facing insurmountable obstacles in the restitution and restoration of their land. “It’s not by might nor by power but by my spirit says the Lord”.
Today, no matter what you face, for this reason I pray along with Paul that you might be strengthened, submitted, sensitive and saturated with God’s fullness within your inner man. Nothing can separate you from this love that is beyond all knowledge, and no eye has seen or heard what God is going to do in and through your life. Its exceedingly, abundantly beyond anything we could ever ask or think!