The second great prayer of Paul’s in his letter to the Ephesians is in chapter three. He prays for five things.
- That we will be strengthened with power through the Holy Spirit (3:16).
- That Christ will dwell within us (3:17)
- That we will be established in love (3:17)
- That we will understand the extent of Christ’s love (3:18)
- That we will be filled with all God’s fullness (3:19)
The extent of Paul’s prayers is almost overwhelming. What an incredible thing, for instance, that the Spirit of God should dwell in our inner beings! Yet God has chosen human bodies as the temples of his Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19).
Similarly, Paul prays that we will ‘grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ’ yet immediately goes on to point out that it ‘surpasses knowledge’! (3:18).
How can you know the unknowable? Yet this is his prayer. Somehow, it’s possible.
Then finally, he asks that we might be filled with all of God’s fullness. Extraordinary! Yet really God wants to give us all he can of himself so that we fall short in no way whatever.
To read more on this topic see Living in the Image of God, Barry Chant (Miranda: Tabor, 2012 available in eBook and Paperback) from which this edited extract is taken.