Big Prayer

In Ephesians 3, after a brief parenthetical excursion into Paul's tasking from God to take the gospel to the Gentiles, Paul prays for Gentile believers.

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. (Eph 3:14-19)

This is a big prayer, but it's somewhat convoluted. That is, you have to track it carefully to see what he's praying for. Let's see if I can boil it down. He prays that "you would be strengthened with power through His Spirit" for the purpose of having Christ dwell in your hearts and so that you can comprehend the love of Christ. There, now, Paul, wouldn't that have been clearer? Easier to understand? Well, maybe, but certainly far more anemic. What more does Paul give us?

1) You have the source -- the Father. He is the Creator of all. He grants strength according to the riches of His glory. This prayer, then, will be answered to the glory of God. And you have the power for it -- the Holy Spirit.

2) You have the first request. He asks for strength so that Christ may dwell in your hearts. You have the mechanism -- faith.

3) You have the second request -- the strength to comprehend the love of Christ.

4) You have the conditions of how to comprehend His love -- to be rooted and grounded in love. That is, all of your nourishment ("rooted") is provided in His love and your basis for everything ("grounded") is His love. You thrive on and proceed from His love. This is necessary for you to comprehend His love.

5) You have the structure of His love. It is multidimensional. It has "breadth and length and height and depth." And it is vast; it "surpasses knowledge," which, clearly, is why we need the Holy Spirit's empowerment. We are to comprehend that which surpasses knowledge.

6) Finally, you have the ultimate purpose of the prayer. The underlying purpose is God's glory, but why do we need to have power for Christ to dwell in our hearts and strength to comprehend the incomprehensible love of Christ? So that we will be filled with all the fullness of God. That is the ultimate end. Paul's prayer is that Christ would dwell in us so we can operate in and from His love to be filled with the fullness of God that exceeds anything and everything we can imagine (Eph 3:20).

I told you it was a big prayer.