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Paul’s Prayer for Our Spiritual Strength (June 10, 2024)

“For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named…” (Ephesians 3:14-15).

Thus begins one of the most encouraging prayers in the Bible, the Apostle Paul’s eloquent petition asking God to spiritually strengthen the early Christians in the church at Ephesus (recorded in Ephesians 3). Paul’s prayer serves as a reminder to all generations of followers of Jesus of the inner spiritual resources that empower us to serve God, experience the abundance of His love, and receive the bounty of the blessings promised those who walk by faith in Christ.

In our human weakness, many Christians fail to realize that we have within us the divine strength that transforms hearts, changes lives, and frees us from our bondage to sin. Christ Himself lives in us through the power of the Holy Spirit who inhabits the temples of our hearts. Paul asks God on behalf of all believers “…that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man…” (V. 16-17).

The indwelling Holy Spirit also helps us to better grasp the matchless love that prompted Christ to suffer and die that we might receive God’s grace and His gift of everlasting life. God’s will is “…that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height--to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”  (V. 17-19)

As members of the body of Christ united as one by the Holy Spirit, our heavenly Father wants us to experience the fullness of the blessings He freely gives to those who love God and express it through faithful obedience that glorifies Him. “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” (V. 20-21)



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