THURSDAY 26th
Ephesians 3:14-21
NIV (v20-21) – ‘Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.’
ESV (v20-21) – ‘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.’
1) That they may be strengthened with power (v16)
2) That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith (v17)
3) That they may be rooted and grounded in love (17-18)
4) That they may know the love of Christ and the fulness of God (v19)
5) That all the glory goes to the Lord Jesus (v20-21)
Paul finishes this prayer with an ascription of praise and glory to God, making a very bold statement or declaration of faith, ‘Now unto him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think . . .’ This does not mean that God is going to do or give us absolutely everything that we might ask or even demand from him in prayer, it doesn’t mean that we can come to God with a blank cheque book and get him to sign off everything we want, it doesn’t mean that we can name it and claim it or blab it and grab it, it doesn’t even mean that we have the power to speak things into existence by our words or through the power of prayer, it simply means what it says, or to put it another way it is language Paul is using to make us aware that God can do anything, it is to strengthen our faith, – but what God does will always be in accordance to what are his eternal plan and purpose, his will and not what I may demand or my whim and fancy. Of course God can do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, he created the heavens and the earth by speaking his word, he displayed his power in so many different ways to the people of Israel, he stopped the mouths of lions, he put a seal of protection around the Hebrew lads in the furnace, we could compile a long list, but what is the most amazing of all is that he wrought salvation by the means of a Cross, a place of public humiliation and execution and he demonstrated his power by raising Jesus from the dead thus making eternal life available to you and me.
If God were to do everything I wanted him to do, it would look more like I was controlling God, as if he was under my control and what a mess things would turn out to be, because I would end up living a self -centred life. Rather we allow him to do what he wants to do, we come under his authority, under his control, allowing him to be sovereign in all things. We can ask for more, so long as we ask that it be according to his will and be willing to accept that sometimes God may have to say no! And he sometimes does say no because he has our best interests at heart. ‘And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.’ (1 John 5:14–15)
The apostle goes on to say ‘to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.’ By submitting to his will and obeying his leading, all glory goes to God. Man’s chief aim is to glorify God, sadly we seem too often to think that man’s chief aim is to satisfy self, when all the time it should be to bring glory to God.