“I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit.”
Ephesians 3:16
It’s called FOMO: Fear Of Missing Out. They say it’s rampant these days as people see on social media all the fun that others appear to be having and fear they are missing out. As for me, I read the Bible and fear (well, not fear), but I am concerned that I am missing out on all God has promised us. I see the spiritual riches God has provided for His children, but I have not asked for them. James, in his little letter, does seek to remind: “You do not have because you do not ask” (James 4:2). James knew the power of prayer, and he had observed that “The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective” (James 5:16). James spent so much time on his knees that early Christians called him “Camel Knees.”
Paul prays this fervent prayer on his knees, asking God for all the fullness of His best blessings for his readers. Some Bible commentators see Paul’s prayer as a staircase ascending ever higher. Follow the steps upward represented by four words: “strength”, “love”, “knowledge”, and “fullness”. It is a climbing prayer to be strengthened inwardly; established in Christ’s love, with growing knowledge of that boundless love; and ultimately to be filled with all of God’s fullness. Here are possibilities in prayer often overlooked.
Each line of Paul’s bold, confident prayer opens “out one onto the other like some majestic suite of apartments in a great palace-temple, each leading into a loftier and more spacious hall, each drawing nearer the presence-chamber, until at last we stand there.” (Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture: Ephesians) Paul knows he can pray for such wondrous things for the believer because he is sure of God’s eternal purpose for His children. But the children must want, and they must ask! Each line of Paul’s prayer printed on the next page is God’s purpose for you:
“I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love.
I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
“The degree of fullness in any life accords perfectly with the intensity of true desire. We have as much of God as we actually want.” A. W. Tozer
