Hip Homiletics

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.