In reading Ephesians 3:14-21, Paul has taught me that one of my greatest responsibilities as a disciple is to pray for other Christians to live out the Gospel. In it, Paul prays that the Father would strengthen the Ephesians through his Spirit so that Christ would dwell in their hearts. He also prayed they would continuously grow in their knowledge of God's love, and be filled with that amazing love more and more.
It is then that he praises God for being able to do more than we can ever imagine through His power abiding in us! What Paul prays, in my opinion, is for God to manifest His extraordinary love in us — and through us — in every detail of our everyday lives. The rest of the Epistle describes exactly how to live in love.
For Paul, being a disciple meant discovering more and more just how much love we can manifest through the Spirit's strength. And to be a disciple is not only to live out that love, but to pray others will also live out that love more and more. Just as Paul prayed the Ephesians would.
And so, I pray this prayer in Ephesians all the time — for myself and for others, knowing that living a life of love in the Spirit is what being a disciple is all about. Will you join me in praying it for you and other disciples you know?
Father, come and powerfully strengthen us through your Spirit so that Christ lives in and through us. Help us to continuously grow in the knowledge and experience of the amazing love you manifested in Christ, so that your love pours out from us more and more each day. Whenever we don't want to love, or feel unable to love, remind us that you are able to do more than we can imagine through your power within us, and that even impossible love is possible in you. Make us extraordinary lovers of others, and of yourself, so that our whole lives serve to glorify Christ. Amen.
Throughout this Day: Praise God for all the ways he manifests his love for you by meditating on all the things Paul says about him in Ephesians 1-3. Draw up a list of all God has done, is doing, and will do for you, according to those chapters, to reread whenever you doubt his love.
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