Exploring Prayers in the Bibleনমুনা

Day 7: Paul’s Prayer for Grounding in Love

from Ephesians 3:14-21

When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with his inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all of God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen.

Reflection on the passage:
One of my favorite pictures of the spiritual life is of a tree rooted beside streams of living water (see Psalm 1:3). I imagine myself as a tall California redwood tree, grounded in the rich reddish-brown forest soil, roots going down deep into the springs of fresh mountain waters and branches going up to the heavens in praise. The apostle Paul uses this same metaphor in this week’s passage. He prays for the Lord’s people to be “rooted and established in love” (from verse 17) and gives a breathtaking picture of the strength and power available to us through Christ's unsurpassed, ever-abundant love.

Paul gets on his knees in earnest supplication before the Father. He prays not only for the Ephesian church to whom he is writing this letter but, by extension, for all of God’s people. In fact, He reminds us that every family or people group originates with our heavenly Father (from verse 14). What Paul is so desiring for each Christian is that we welcome the fullness of what God wants to pour into us: His very presence, love, strength, and power into our inmost being! Paul includes each person of the Trinity in his description of this wondrous in-filling: “strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being” (verse 16), “that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith” (verse. 17), and “filled to the measure of all the fullness of God” (verse 19). He also prays that God would give us the ability to grasp just how much He loves us. It takes divine power to comprehend because His love is so great! (verse 18).

I am praying for you today. Even as we have already received Jesus into our hearts by faith, I pray that we continue to say “yes” to all that God wants to pour into us of Himself. I pray that we create space in our lives to simply be with Him and receive from Him. His riches are abundant, and what He can do in and through us is beyond what we can ask or imagine (verse 20). All this for His glory, AMEN.

Prayer Practice: Praying the Scripture
One of the most powerful tools in our praying is to use the Bible in our prayers. Here are some ideas for ways that you can pray Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3:14-21. I encourage you to try one.

1. Simply pray the words of Paul’s prayer as your prayer for a particular person or group of people. You can use the whole prayer or sections of it.

2. Choose a word or phrase in this passage that particularly stands out to you. Meditate on it with an open heart and mind, listening for what the Holy Spirit might be inviting you to through it.

3. Picture yourself as a tree, rooted and established in the soil of Christ’s love. Imagine stretching your roots deeper into the soil, saying yes to the more God wants to give you. Feel His living waters flowing up from your roots to the core of your trunk and out to all of your branches.

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