TUESDAY 19th – Ephesians 3
We are going to continue in the book of Ephesians today and Chapter 3 verses 14-21.
Paul has started this chapter with the words, ‘For this reason . . .’ and then seems to get side-tracked before returning to his point again in verse 14 ‘For this reason . . .’ so to understand what he means by ‘For this reason’ we have to look back at the verses preceding chapter 3 and into chapter two. He has already done the same thing in chapter 1, after what he has said in the opening verses 1-14, he then says in verse 15 ‘For this reason’ and he prays for them.
I won’t sum up chapter 2 here because we have already looked at it in the previous two devotions, but as a result of who and what the believers had become in Christ, and because of his spiritual care for them Paul says ‘for this reason I bow my knees before the Father . . .’ And just as he prayed in chapter one, he prays again in chapter three. Now, he could have just told the believers he had prayed for them and then continued with his letter, but he chooses not to, he chooses instead to let them know what he has prayed for them verses 16-19.
What a good prayer for Paul to be praying for this Church in Ephesus, it’s a good example of a prayer that every pastor should be praying not only for himself but for the church in which he has been called to serve.
So often and rightly so, we can pray for all the material needs and the physical needs of one another and yet neglect to pray for spiritual needs.
Learning something from his prayer:
We saw in Ephesians 2 that God is rich in mercy (v4) and rich in grace (v7), here in chapter 3:18 we read of the unsearchable riches of Christ and then in Pauls prayer in v16 the riches of his glory. Glory is a word that is used to describe the very presence of God, I believe it describes the fulness of God himself, that is who he is in his attributes and what he is in his eternality. He is the source of life and at the same time he is the one who sustains life, therefore Paul is acknowledging that everything we need in this life finds its source out of the riches of God’s glory. The word riches linked to God’s glory means that God cannot give out so much that the supply runs low or even runs out. It is a permanently perpetual supply. His riches will never be exhausted, and God’s glory will never be diminished.
In this prayer Paul is praying that we would be strengthened with power through his Spirit in our inner being. There is no better place to get our power from than from the heavenly supply, we need to keep being strengthened by his power, the more so as we live in such dark and difficult days. Paul wants the same thing for the Colossian Church, Colossians 1:11 ‘May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy’. As I write these few thoughts down, my prayer is that we at Emmanuel Pentecostal Church, and others who are reading this through ‘Wordpress’ or email etc. will know what it is to be strengthened in our inner being as a result of God’s Spirit, imparting strength to us from out of the riches of his glory.
Paul wanted the believers to know not just in theory, but also in practical outworking the power of the presence of the indwelling Christ in their lives.
In the prayer, Paul mentions the dimensions of breadth, height, length, and depth without saying what the dimensions are referring to, it is generally accepted that he is referring to the wisdom and the love of God. In an earlier letter to the believers at Rome he uses similar language to describe that there is nothing in all of creation that can separate us from the love of God (Romans 8:37-39), he sees everything that can seek to come against us as believers, he lists tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger and sword, (Romans 8:35) and his definite conclusion is that nothing will separate us from the love of God.
I will attempt to paint a picture here of what I can visualise in my mind, a picture that I hope and trust will help us to understand what I want to say from linking Ephesians 3:18 with Romans 8:31-39.
Imagine (or get a pencil and paper and draw) a large circle (dinner plate size) and a smaller circle. (saucer size and cut them out)
In the small circle place the words tribulation, distress, persecutions, famine, nakedness, danger, sword, and anything which you are battling against at this moment in your life. Then in the larger circle, just write around half of the circumference in the inside edge ‘the love of God’.
Spend a few moments just thinking about the things you have written on the small circle, on their own they would be very depressing, on their own they would swallow us up, but now, place the small circle into the centre of the larger circle, and see how the height, depth, breadth and length of the love of God is far bigger than the problems in the middle. So great is God’s love that there is nothing, absolutely nothing that can overwhelm his love or separate us from it.
Now, finally, somewhere around the other half of the circumference of the large circle also write ‘the wisdom of God.’ Now remind yourself that when you ever question God in the midst of your circumstances, his wisdom is at work, and his wisdom is beyond our wisdom and his thoughts are above our thoughts, so much so than even though it may seem the things written in the smaller circle might be working against us, Gods wisdom is at work, He knows what he is doing and he is bringing about his purpose and plan. The problems might loom over us, but God is much larger, his love is much larger, his power is much larger, and his wisdom is much larger. In the words of the Psalmist
Psalm 60:4 ‘You have set up a banner for those who fear you, that they may flee to it from the bow.’ Song of Solomon 2:4 ‘His banner over me is love’ When it actually comes to trying to measure out how wide, deep, high, or broad the love and wisdom of God are, it is impossible for as our text says in verse 7 ‘. . . the immeasurable love of Christ.’ It outreaches our circumstances by an immeasurable degree. If you take the larger circle in my illustration, we could never ever draw a circle big enough to contain the love of God or the wisdom of God, it us unfathomable and uncontainable.
Remember the children’s song ‘The love of Jesus is so wonderful? we will end todays devotion with the words, I have discovered there are more words to this that have been added later, so I have included them. Spend some time today meditating on the wonder of God’s love toward the sinner, toward us.
Jesus’ love is very wonderful
Jesus’ love is very wonderful,
Jesus’ love is very wonderful,
Oh, wonderful love!
It’s so high you can’t get over it,
So low you can’t get under it,
So wide you can’t get round it,
Oh, wonderful love!
So deep you can’t go through it,
So long you can’t see the end of it,
So strong you can’t resist it,
Oh, wonderful love!
So bright you have to see it,
So loud you have to hear it,
So sweet you have to taste it,
Oh, wonderful love!
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1st Verse Copyright © Scripture Union
2nd & 3rd Verse from Avebury Wiltshire