SUNDAY 22nd
Ephesians 3:1-13
NIV (v12) – ‘In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.’
ESV (v12) – ‘. . . in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him.’
Last Wednesday we looked at the verses from Ephesians 1 that showed us that Paul prayed for the believers under his care and we come today to the verse that precedes his second prayer for them.
He is saying that it is in and through the Lord Jesus Christ that we have boldness and access or as the NIV puts it freedom and confidence to approach God.
In verses 14 Paul says ‘For this reason I bow my knees before the Father . . .’ When we put it together with verse 12, (in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him) because of what Christ has done we can come before the Holy God as our Father, this is one of the blessings that flows out of Ephesians 1:3, where we have been blessed in Christ Jesus, for having been saved, and blessed, one of the blessings is we have become the children of God and he has become our heavenly Father. And Paul is coming before his heavenly Father on behalf of his spiritual brothers and sisters again.
What is he asking for them this time?
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)
To be strengthened with power – he mentioned power in his earlier prayer, (1:19) power which he described as being immeasurable, that’s power! We measure power in BHP or PSI or in voltage terms, I worked for about five years for an agricultural engineer, we manufactured corn and silage trailers from scratch, and we had steel press machines, small in comparison to what are found in heavy engineering and manufacturing, but nonetheless powerful, I used to watch with amazement at the force that was exerted by the press to bend steel into the shape required, and we could scour the earth for the most powerful press ever made and stand in awe at its capabilities, but it would pale into insignificance with the immeasurable power of the Holy Spirit, why? for it was that immeasurable power that was at work when Jesus rose from the dead. The same power that was active when God spoke a word at creation and everything came into being, the same power that was at work holding back the Red sea and the river Jordan, the same power that held the sun back for a day, the same power that was manifested in the earthly ministry of Jesus as he healed the sick, raised the dead and performed those amazing miracles such as turning water into wine or causing the five loaves and two fishes to feed a crowd of way over 5000. The same power that was seen being poured out on the day of Pentecost and caused the building where the disciples were meeting a few days later to shake, this is the immeasurable power of the Almighty God, the Creator of heaven and earth who also demonstrated his power at Calvary and in the tomb and raised Jesus to life again so that as we believe by faith we can come with boldness and confidence into his presence and call him ‘our Father.’
This should cause us to know that we can come with boldness and confidence, knowing that his immeasurable power is toward us who believe (Ephesians 1:19) and that there isn’t anything too hard that we can ask for that God cannot do so long as it is not outside the bounds of who God is in his person, character and nature, for we cannot ask him to change, he changes not, we cannot ask him to lie for he is the God of truth, we cannot ask him to go against his will, (I will touch on this again on Thursday) but we can ask him to step into the affairs of our lives and ask him to intervene.
Be encouraged today with whatever you are facing or whatever you may be going through, God is our Father and he bids us to come into his presence and in coming we can ask him to display his power in our lives and our circumstances. This devotion may be for someone in particular today, when I started preparing today I had no intention of going down the route I have taken, therefore I must believe that God wants to speak into your life, into your circumstance at this time. Be encouraged and know his immeasurable power is toward you. ‘Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.’ Hebrews 4:16
I will continue with the other points through this week.