A Powerful Prayer

In the third chapter of Paul's epistle to the church at Ephesus, he offers a prayer for the church. It's a big one ... much bigger than it first appears.

I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of His glory He may grant you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith -- that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. (Eph 3:14-21)

Now, to be fair, Paul is not very good at writing in English. I mean, this is a huge run-on thought. Notice that he starts in verse 14 with "I bow my knees before the Father" and does not end that sentence (because he doesn't end the thought) until "... filled with all the fullness of God." One thought. And one big thought.

What is his prayer for the church at Ephesus? He prays that God would grant them strength. And not just any strength. Strength according to the riches of His glory. Strength through His Spirit. Not natural strength. For what? What does he want to accomplish that requires all this strength? "So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith." Okay, so he's asking that God would grant them supernatural, Holy-Spirit strength for the purpose of having Christ dwell in them. Apparently that requires a lot of strength. But why does Paul want Christ to dwell in them (To take up residence in them. I mean, that's really big on its own.)? So that they might know the love of Christ.

Yes, that's an actual summary, but it doesn't do it justice. Paul asks for the Spirit's empowerment so that Christ may dwell in them so that they might comprehend (grasp, hold, take as their own) "what is the breadth and length and height and depth" of His love. All aspects. Every direction. How big it is. He says that to grasp this they must first be "rooted and grounded in love." Because love is the defining characteristic of the saints (John 13:35). Love for God and love for others. Rooted and grounded in that love.

So ... how big is it? How big is the love of Christ? Paul makes a bizarre statement here. He wants them to "know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge." Well, now, that's odd. Oh, I know ... Paul is using two different words for "know" here. One is head knowledge and the other is experiential, right? No. The "know" he speaks of here is knowledge and the "knowledge" he speaks of is the root word for the word, "know," that he used. So he really does want us ("With all the saints," remember?) to know what cannot be known. The sense here, then, is that we would have flashes of knowledge, moments of clarity, that we would know personally when the occasion arises some component of that which, ultimately, exceeds complete knowledge. That's difficult, but he says that this limited knowledge of Christ's ultimately unknowable love will cause us to be filled with all the fullness of God.

What follows is, perhaps, one of the grandest "amens" of all time. Paul has just asked God for the clearly impossible. He asked for God to give us the strength of the Spirit to have Christ in us so we can have knowledge of His love that exceeds knowing. So, how can we say "Amen"? From whence comes any possibility of "let it be so"?

Paul re-addresses his prayer. "To Him who is able ..." And then he strings together such a string of superlatives that both he and our English translations have a hard time expressing it. He is able ("has the power for") to do ("to actually execute") "hyper hyperekperissou" all things. You will notice that the prefix of that second word is the same as the prior word -- "hyper" -- from which we get our word "hyper" (go figure). Same idea. "Beyond." Think, "Wow, that kid is really hyper." Paul is speaking here of something that is hyper hyper. And he's not done. That tail end -- perissou -- might mean "abundantly," but it doesn't. It actually means superabundantly. In itself it is a superlative. So Paul says that God is able to do "superabundantly beyond beyond" something. Way past a simple "more than." Beyond what? What you can ask. Hmm, okay, we get it. God is certainly able to exceed our requests. Or think. Wait, that's much more. We can ask a lot, but I'm pretty sure we can imagine much, much beyond that. And He has the ability to actually accomplish "superabundantly beyond beyond" what you can even imagine. How? Wait for it. "According to the power at work within us." He accomplishes all that using power that He already has invested in us, working in us -- already present and in use ... in us.

Paul breaks out into a doxology here, and if you've been paying attention, you would, too. "To Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever." All that Paul prays is to God's glory. All that he prays is according to God's glory. All that Paul says he wants for believers and that God can do in believers is to God's glory. Throughout all generations. Forever and ever. A thoroughly grand "Amen" at the end of a massive "amen."

So I'm wondering. If you believed that -- that God was capable of vastly exceeding your wildest dreams and that the power to do so is it already at work in you -- how would that change your prayers? If you believed that the basis of the Christian life was love -- the love of God and love for others -- how would that change your actions and attitudes? You see? A really huge prayer.