#DailyDevotion Things We Should Join Paul In Praying For

Eph. 3:14-19 ¹⁴ For this reason I kneel before the “Father,” ¹⁵from Whom every group in heaven and on earth gets the name of “family,” ¹⁶ and ask Him, as He is rich in glory, to give you this: that His Spirit will inwardly strengthen you with power, ¹⁷Christ will live in your hearts by faith, and you will be firmly rooted and built up in love, ¹⁸so that you and all the holy people can grasp how broad and long and high and deep His love is, ¹⁹and know how Christ loves us – more than we can know – and so you will be filled with all that is in God.

For what reason? Well I could be ornery and say everything Paul has written up to now and, well, I wouldn’t be wrong. But most immediately, for revealing to us the mystery of his will, to save both Jew and Gentile through the work of Jesus. This leads us to verse 12, “In Him, by believing in Him, we have confidence and can boldly come to God.” Verse 12 here sets up the prayer starting in verse16. If everything Paul has written up to this point, then verse twelve tells us the result that we can come with confidence and boldness in prayer to God.

Paul in verses 14 and 15 has this tangent on the word Father. Now in the Greek and Latin the word for country gets it meaning from the word father. I’m not sure how that works with other languages but Paul is writing to a Greek and Latin world so I’m going with it. Ok, if I can get into it for a little bit, patera is Father and patria (countries, we get patriotic from it) is a feminine derivative of patera for country, family, lineage. All countries, families etc. have a lineage to God the Father who created Adam who Luke in his gospel says is God’s son (because the Father created him). This Father of ours, who we only know through Jesus Christ our LORD, is rich in glory. If he his rich in glory, the Paul has no problem asking the Father for the things he proceeds with in the rest of the verses.

So what is Paul asking God the Father for, for the Ephesians and for you? He asks for the Holy Spirit to inwardly strengthen you with power. What kind of power? Gospel Power. What do I mean by that? Gospel power is the power that God works in you through what he has done in Christ for you, is doing through Christ in you and what he has promised to do for you in Christ. These things are the Gospel of Jesus and give you the power of God.

He asks Christ would live in your heart by faith. Through faith in these promises of God in Christ Jesus and the power of those promises working in you Christ would be manifest in your life. It is no longer you who live but Christ Jesus who lives in you. Christ living in you will be having his way with your life, trust in the Father for the forgiveness of sins, trusting he will provide for your every need, and having mercy on those who deserve no mercy. He asks that you be firmly rooted and built up in love. He we see Christ command that Christians love one another as he has loved us. First we are rooted in the love Christ has for us. He thought of our need first and sacrificed himself for our salvation. Being built up in love is for Christians to put the needs of their fellow Christians first and if necessary make sacrifices in our lives to meet their needs.

Finally he asks we know Christ loves us and being loved by him we are filled with all that is in God.

Heavenly Father, answer Paul’s prayer to the Ephesians for us, that his prayer be answered in our lives so we may know Christ’s love and be filled with your glory. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

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