The Power of Prayer and Love:

When we read Ephesians 3:14-21, we can do one of two things first read it and not even realize what great promises and power is in it.  Second we read it and sit back let Paul’s words sink in and be changed forever.  These few verses tell us a great deal, it tells us how we are to live our lives, it tells us of the power of God.  Paul says in the verses 14-17; “when I think of the wisdom and scope of God’s plan, 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 give you mighty inner strength through his Holy Spirit.  And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love.”  Paul says that just at the thought God’s wisdom and plan that it drives him to prayer.  What does Paul pray for? That Christ will give us might inner strength that we may grow deep in God’s marvelous love.  Paul doesn’t want the people of God’s church to just be content with attending church once and while and praying on the run.  No, he prays that we will grow strong in God’s love.   That our lives are going to be controlled by the fact that we have allowed God to make are hearts His home.

In verses 18-19 Paul continues with by saying, “And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love really is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it. Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from God.”  Paul is praying that we experience the love of Christ, we won’t understand but it will change us forever.  I believe that too many times we are allowing our own wants to control how we experience God.  We have it in our minds that God loves us and wants to give us all that we need and want.  That He wants to make us comfortable.  Sometime we even get confused and because we want something we decide that it is what God wants for us. But what if we started to ask God to revel to us what it is He desires for us to do in our lives.  What if instead of saying I want this so bad that it is what God wants for me too.  The problem is we then pray for it and when the answer comes back no, we get mad.  What Paul is saying is that he wants to see us come and allow God to become a true part of our lives.  Christ said; “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.”(Jn 14:23)

Paul then ends this prayer with; “Now glory be to God! By his mighty power at work within us, he is able to accomplish infinitely more than we would ever dare to ask or hope.   May he be given glory in the church and in Christ Jesus forever and ever through endless ages. Amen.”(vss 20-21)  Paul is telling us let God make His home in you, empty yourself and let God fill you with His love and power.  Then you will see God do some awesome things in your life.  Let us stop trying to get God to do what we want Him to do and pray for His guidance, let us give God our lives for real.  Henry Blackaby tells us this, “God wants us to align our lives with Him so He will accomplish His divine purposes in and though us. God is not our servant to bless our plans and desires. He is our Lord, and we must adjust our lives to what He is doing and to the ways He chooses to accomplish His work. If we will not submit to God and His ways, He will allow us to follow our own devices. But be sure of this: we will miss God's activity, and we will not experience what God wants to do through us to bless others. As Christians, it is not only important what we do but how we do it.”

Blackaby, Richard (2008-09-01). Experiencing God (p. 96). B&H Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.