Ephesians 3:14-21, the Message.....My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth.
I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in.
And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you’ll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth!
Test its length! Plumb the depths!
Rise to the heights!
Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.
God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams!
He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us.
Glory to God in the church!
Glory to God in the Messiah, in Jesus!
Glory down all the generations!
Glory through all millennia! Oh, yes!
Paul wrote this prayer to the Ephesians in the middle of the book of the Ephesians...it was like he couldn't help but write a prayer right there in the middle of his letter... He was so excited to tell them so much, he stopped and prayed that they would take it all in and then wrote some more...
He was so taken up with the magnificence of all that God is, who Jesus is, who the Holy Spirit is...and he couldn't contain himself..and he wanted those people to experience the wholeness of the message, the life, the love as well...
I was drawn to his words, his enthusiasm, his love, his concern, his fervency this morning as I read it both in the Message and the NIV versions...just thinking that Christ prayed for me as well...with even more love, more fervency, more power....wanting to draw us each into that realm where we live in that strength, that power, that gloriousness, that immeasurably more...
Thank YOU...for Your prayers, for the prayer of those who have gone before,....help me to pray fervently for those around me and those coming behind...desiring You in my life and theirs as well...gloriously praising You...
Ephesians 3:14-21, NIV, For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name.
I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.
And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—
that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
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