Praying for Spiritual Strength
I love having a window into Paul’s prayer life. The kind of window that tells us his prayer burden for churches. In Ephesians 3:14-19, Paul gets on his knees and talks with his heavenly Father praying for the people he loves.
He makes two requests and gives a reason for why he believes this prayer is important. By application, we see the importance of this prayer for us.
A Prayer for Unwavering Faith (verses 16-17a): He asks that his Father would strengthen us in our inner being through the Holy Spirit. It’s a prayer for spiritual strength. The kind of strength the Holy Spirit provides. The reason for this prayer for inner strength is so that Jesus Christ would dwell in our heart by faith. All that we are is grounded in Jesus. He must remain central in our hearts because we can’t go on without him. Faith is the key. This is a prayer for unwavering faith in the hard times, when your health is failing, when your job is unstable or non-existent, when your home is falling apart, when life feels topsy turvy. It’s also a prayer for unwavering faith in the good times. That when the comforts of life are present, I do not waver in my faith and begin to rely on self. When my career is succeeding, unwavering faith keeps Christ at the center and does not let my job become an idol. This is a prayer to the Father that the Spirit would sustain their faith in Jesus.
A Prayer for Delighting in God’s Love (verses 17b-19): This second prayer request is that we are grounded in love so we would comprehend and know the love of Christ. Our minds are so frail and slow to comprehend and it takes work to deepen in the love of God through prayer, study of the word, meditation on the Scriptures, and walking through trials and tests. Christ’s love is endless in its breadth, length, height, and depth. It truly does surpass all knowledge, and yet, Paul prays that we would know the unknowable. Why pray this prayer? So that the fullness of God, who is love, fills me. As I wallow and delight in God’s love through understanding and knowledge and experience, God’s love fills my heart.
5 Worship-Quenching Attitudes
As I studied Ephesians 1:7-14 for a recent message, Blood-Bought and Sealed, the Spirit showed me Five attitudes of the heart that will choke out a heart of worship.
1. Ingratitude – It’s far too easy to view blessings from based on what we should be receiving materially rather than what God has promised and delivered in the “heavenly places” (Eph 1:3). When we have this mindset, we take for granted the glorious blessings that are ours in Christ. This ungrateful heart brings bitterness and does not cultivate a heart of worship. Paul’s writing Ephesians while in prison (3:1, 4:1, 6:20), and yet he can begin his letter, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!” He understood and was grateful for all of the spiritual blessings that were his, although his external circumstances were difficult.
2. A cheapening of Grace – A grand hindrance from living as an instrument of praise is a cheapening of God’s grace. The power of the blood of Christ demonstrates the riches of God’s grace, which covered the “cost” of our bondage and bring forgiveness for our trespasses (Eph 1:7-8). However, some people diminish the value of God’s grace with a “He’ll forgive me” mindset. This “I can sin and then ‘repent’” attitude tramples upon God’s grace. “Shall we go on sinning so that grace may abound? By no means!” (Rom 6:1-2). God’s grace is of infinite worth driving us to worship. An attitude that cheapens God’s grace quenches worship.
3. Allowing past bondage prevent present worship – In Christ, you have been redeemed from the bondage of sin (Rom 6:6-7), death (Rom 8:2), Satan (Hebrews 2:14-15), and the Law (Rom 7:4-6) and delivered from the wrath of God (Rom 5:9). In Christ you have been forgiven! Yet, some of us live as if this were not the case. We believe that Jesus had died for us, but still back in our minds we feel like we still must earn God’s love or acceptance. So we feel chained by our past sin. But there is nothing you can do to free you from your guilt. Jesus has done that through his blood. If you have surrendered your life to Jesus, remember that you have been redeemed and forgiven (Eph 1:7). God’s grace has been lavished upon you. Don’t let your past bondage prevent present worship.
4. Despair over the struggles of this life (personal, local, global) – It’s easy to despair when we here of Christians being arrested for their faith. It’s easy to despair when we hear of suicide bombings. It’s easy to despair when our country is in the midst of a financial crisis and jobs are lacking but bills are increasing. It’s easy to despair when we read statistics of sex trafficking, statistics of child abuse, statistics of families breaking down. It’s easy to despair when we watch the news at night. Although it seems our world is unraveling, we must trust God’s sovereignty that he will unite things under Christ (Eph 1:9-10). When the fullness of time comes, amidst the great hurts and pains of this life, God will redeem those who are His and execute judgment on those who reject. He will unite all things under Christ. So do not let despair quench your worship. Hope in God, for He is sovereign.
5. Unbelief – Nowhere in the Scripture does the Spirit come into the lives of Believers in a “quiet” way. When the Spirit comes, he comes in power! He comes to change your life by giving you a new one in regeneration. He comes to seal you with a sure hope. He comes to enliven godly affections that stir your heart to worship. But where there is unbelief, the Spirit is not present and there is no heart to worship God because there is no Spirit within. Unbelief is a deadly venom that will prevent a heart of worship. But when we have heard the gospel and believed in Christ, the Spirit has sealed us securing our salvation and giving us a heart of worship (Eph 1:13-14).
Our God is worthy of all worship so let us be unquenchable worshipers of Him, to the praise of His glorious grace!
Romans 8:1-4
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Hungry
The prayer behind this message is that you might hunger for God and for the Holy Spirit’s leading in your life. Are you Hungry?
The Holy Spirit: To Our Advantage
Why does Jesus tell his sorrow-filled disciples that it is to their advantage that he would leave?
Hindering the Spirit’s Working in Your Life
John 14-16 and Acts 1-2 are passages that provide us with a rich description of the Holy Spirit’s working in the life of the believer. Three particular aspects of His work stand out:
- The Holy Spirit has a permanent intimate presence in our lives
- The Holy Spirit will empower us to accomplish God’s kingdom advancing agenda for our lives
- The Holy Spirit ultimately wants to Exalt Christ through us
We also see at least Five Hindrances to the Spirit-filled Life that are either explicit or implicit in those passages:
1. Unrepentant Heart – Sin skews our perspective and hinders the Spirit’s working in our lives. In particular, an unrepentant heart. When the Holy Spirit reveals sin in our lives and we do not take action against that sin, we are hindering the work of the Spirit in our lives. This is not a call to living lives of sinless perfection, but living lives in continual reliance upon God as we walk the walk of repentance. Do not quench the Spirit’s working in your life through an unrepentant heart. (John 16:8…convict the world of sin)
2. Pride – The Spirit’s aim is to exalt Christ in the preaching of the gospel in order that sinners would repent and turn to Christ therefore advancing God’s kingdom. The awful nature of pride is that it is concerned about me, myself, and I. It is derails any attempt of exalting Christ and, in its ugliness, exalts ourselves. (Acts 1:8, be my witnesses; John 15:26-27 he will bear witness about me, and you also will bear witness about me; John 16:14 he will glorify me).
3. Prayerlessness – When we see the role prayer played in the life of the believers as they waited for the arrival of the Holy Spirit and in their community after the Spirit had arrived, we see God’s mighty working in the power through prayer. Prayer is a posture of heart in which declares, “I need you, Oh Lord.” Prayer submits ourselves to God’s will…to be used by God for His purposes. (Acts 1:14, devoting themselves to prayer; Acts 2:42, devoted themselves to…prayers)
4. Apathetic mindset toward the lostness of people – When our hearts grow cold and apathetic and are no longer moved by the helpless condition of people who are walking in the path of destruction-the path to eternal separation from God-we are not living as Spirit-empowered witnesses. When we are no longer concerned about the advancement of God’s kingdom through declaration of the Gospel, we are hindering the Spirit’s working in us to accomplish that purpose. (Acts 1:8, be my witness in Jerusalem, etc.; Acts 2:36, let all the house of Israel know…)
5. Wordless Living: Failure to let the Word dwell in you richly – The Word of God is inspired by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is called the Spirit of Truth (John 14:7, 16:13) he will teach us and remind us of Jesus’ teaching (John 14:26). We see this at play in Peter’s message in Acts 2 where he quotes three different OT passages in declaring Jesus is the savior of the world (Joel 2:28-32, Psalm 16:8-11, Psalm 110:1). We thus need to be people of the Word!
At the end of the day, God has provided His Holy Spirit to intimately and permanently dwell in us and powerfully work through us to advance his Kingdom and see Christ exalted.
Oh that we would be used as vessels to glorify our great God!
