From:
Date: October 9, 2019
Subject: It's October 9; Good Morning Union


“For this reason I kneel before the Father…” Ephesians 3:14

I have been so blessed every time I hear Pastor Terry Bock recite this section of Scripture that I decided to fix it in my memory as he has; and what a blessing it has been in my prayer life and in my praise time with the Father!

The setting- Paul is in prison in Rome and he’s writing to the believers in Ephesus. He has just declared the VERY controversial conclusion that ALL people, Jews AND Gentiles, have the same access to God. He encouraged them not to feel sorry for him just because he was in chains, but to “rejoice in the glorious and unsearchable riches of Christ” for everyone.

Then he said, “For THIS reason I kneel before the Father, from whom His WHOLE family (Jews and Gentiles- a Gentile is anyone who is not a Jew, therefore all the rest of us!) in heaven and earth derives its name. Then he prays for 6 things. “I pray that”:

  1. “out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being”- He prayed that they all might have inner strength
  2. “SO THAT Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith”- He prayed because he knew the inner strength can only come when Christ is inside of me
  3. “that you would be rooted and established in love”- He prayed that everything about me is about the Christ who dwells in me and is demonstrated by His love
  4. “that you may have power to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is that love,”- remember the song from childhood? “Deep and wide, deep and wide, there’s a fountain flowing deep and wide…” here’s where it came from!) He prayed that not only would I see the love of Christ, but that I would see the magnitude of that love!
  5. “that you would know that love which surpasses understanding,”- it’s STILL all about grasping the love that is beyond understanding. It’s all about the love of Christ. THAT what was going to heal any wounds of the blending of Jews and Gentiles, and to go beyond healing into expounding on that love.
  6. “that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”- Grasping for the unfathomable love of Christ is what fills me with the fullness of God!

 

And THAT was why Paul “knelt before the Father!” All that seemed to fill his life and his prayers was his desired for all the believers to try and comprehend God’s love for each of them. THAT apparently would resolve all the difference and the difficulties in bringing these two groups of people together. I wonder if that would help today as well? I think I know the answer to that question; I think I’ll continue trying to validate that hypothesis!

His conclusion, after starting them down the road of discovering the magnitude of God’s love was, “Now to Him who is able to immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine, according to HIS power that is within us, to HIM be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

 

Have a great day basking in the unsearchable riches of God’s love,

Pastor Rich

Quote for the day:      “It’s not happy people who are thankful, it’s thankful people who are happy.”

 

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