On My Knees for You

"For this reason I bow my knees before the Father" (Ephesians 3:14). For what reason? Because of all I had just laid before you — that you who were once far off have been brought near, made one people, built into a dwelling for God. When a man has seen such things, he does not lecture. He kneels. And notice before whom: the Father "from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named" (Ephesians 3:15). There is no true fatherhood anywhere that does not borrow its name from his.

Now hear what I asked for you, for I did not pray small. First, "that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being" (Ephesians 3:16). The place God fortifies is the hidden man, the inner self the world never sees. And why this strength? "So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith" (Ephesians 3:17). Christ is already yours if you believe — but I pray he would settle in, be at home in you, take up residence in the deep rooms, not lodge like a stranger at the door.

Then I prayed you would be "rooted and grounded in love" (Ephesians 3:17) — sunk down like a tree into soil, set like a house upon its foundation. From that footing comes the 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" (Ephesians 3:18-19). Mark the wonder of it: I pray you would know what cannot be known, grasp what overflows every grasp. This love is not a lesson to master but an ocean to be lost in — and the end of it is that "you may be filled with all the fullness of God" (Ephesians 3:19). That is what God is after in you. Not a little help. All his fullness.

Does that seem too high for the likes of you? Then hear how I close: "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" (Ephesians 3:20). I have prayed large, and God is larger than my prayer — larger than what you can even think to ask. And the power by which he does it is not off in heaven but "at work within us," the same Spirit already strengthening the inner man.

So this day, do not merely believe that Christ loves you; kneel and ask to be made able to know it — deeper than you know your own name. And when you ask, remember you are asking One who does more than you dared. "To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen" (Ephesians 3:21).