On My Knees for You

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named (Ephesians 3:14-15).

For what reason? I had just written of the mystery long hidden and now made known — that you who were once far off, strangers to the promise, have been brought near and made fellow heirs (Ephesians 3:6). And what does a man do when he sees such a thing? He does not merely admire it. He falls to his knees. I could not hold back the prayer. Everything I had said pressed me down onto the floor of this rented house, chained as I am, to plead with the Father for you.

Notice what I call him: the Father from whom every family is named. All fatherhood, in heaven and on earth, is a shadow cast by his. If you have known a good father, you have tasted a crumb of him. If you have known a poor one, or none at all, hear me — the true and original Father is not like that, and he is the one before whom I kneel for you. He is no reluctant giver.

And what do I ask of him? Hear it, for I am asking it still, over you who read this.

I ask 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). Mark that measure — not out of his riches, as though he gave from the edge of his wealth, but according to them, in proportion to how vast they are. And mark where the strength goes: to the inner being. Not first to your circumstances, not to the lightening of your load, but to the hidden person within, where you are weary and afraid and thin. That is where the Spirit lays his power. I know something of this. God would not remove the thorn from my flesh, but he strengthened the man who carried it (2 Corinthians 12:9). He may do the same in you today — not by changing what presses on you, but by fortifying the one it presses.

I ask that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith (Ephesians 3:17). Now, you who believe already have Christ within you — so why pray this? Because there is a difference between Christ present as a guest and Christ settled as a resident, at home, filling every room. I am asking that he be no stranger in you, kept to the entryway, but that he take up residence and rule from the center of you. And this comes through faith — not by striving harder, but by trusting him more truly.

Then I ask 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 (Ephesians 3:18-19). See how I reach for every dimension at once and still cannot enclose it — breadth, length, height, depth — because his love has no wall I can measure to. And here is the sweet impossibility I set before you: I pray that you would know the love that surpasses knowledge. You will never come to the end of it. That is not a frustration; that is the mercy. You could not exhaust it if you had eternity — and you do. Note too that you comprehend this with all the saints. Not alone. This love is too wide to be measured by one soul in a corner; it is grasped in the fellowship of the church, together.

And where do you stand to take all this in? Rooted and grounded in love — the roots of a tree, the foundation of a house. Both images say the same thing: you must be settled and fixed in his love before you can bear to explore how vast it is. A man tossed about, always wondering whether he is loved, has no ground to stand on. Sink your roots. Lay your foundation. You are loved.

And to what end all of it? That you may be filled with all the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:19). There is the summit of my prayer, and it is almost too much to write. That God himself, in all his fullness, would so fill you that there is no empty room left for fear or shame or emptiness to occupy. This is what he is after in you. Do not aim lower than God has aimed.

Now I know how this reads to some of you. It sounds like more than could ever be true of you — you who are new, or doubting, or barely holding on. So hear how I close, for I did not end this prayer looking at you. I ended it looking at him.

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, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen (Ephesians 3:20-21).

Far more abundantly than all we ask or think. I have asked large things for you in this prayer — and God stands beyond even the reach of my asking, beyond the reach of your imagining. Whatever you dared to hope as you read, he is able to do more. And by what measure? According to the power at work within you — the very same power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him above all rule (Ephesians 1:19-20). That power is not far off in heaven; it is already at work within you, if you are his.

So let me bring it home. When you rise from reading this, you may feel small, and your troubles may be exactly as heavy as they were an hour ago. Do not measure your day by the weight on your shoulders. Measure it by the power in your inner being and the Christ at home in your heart. Kneel, as I have knelt. Ask him for the strength he loves to give. And when you have asked all you can think to ask — remember that he is able to do more than that, and give him the glory even before you see it.

To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus, throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.