[Faith-talk] Daily Thought for Thursday, October 3, 2013

[Paul]

Hello and good day to you all, whether that time of day be morning, afternoon or evening.  You in Australia and New Zealand will be reading this on a Friday, whereas the rest of us will, most likely, be reading it on a Thursday.  Anyway I hope that your day is going well, about to begin or end.

As promised at the end of yesterday's message, here is Part two of Brother Ed Habre's article entitled "A Prayer For the Church." We considered two of the five key aspects of this prayer, posture and person.  We continue with the other three parts to this subject, rendered as follows:

Purpose

Paul assumed this posture before God for a purpose.  Verses 16-19 tell us that he prayed that God "would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God." What a rich group of verses!

Paul's purpose in praying this prayer was that the Ephesians might be strengthened in the inner man.  By extension, that prayer applies to us as well.  And Paul did not simply say in this prayer, "Be strong," and then move on to another topic.  He told _how believers can be strengthened.  He explained that this strength comes through Christ dwelling in our hearts; it cannot happen any other way.  We cannot have a relationship with God and speak with Him with a posture that is right if we do not have a relationship, so it starts with Christ dwelling in our hearts.

Then Paul went on to say that what we have in our hearts will grow out of love.  The love of God in our hearts will be the motivating factor of our lives, and it will bring spiritual discernment.  It is not enough just to have love; we need to express it with spiritual discernment.  We obtain that from our relationship with the Lord.  We do not operate in this Christian life based on our own ideas, but we want God to help us do that which is right, and for that we need the discernment that comes from above.

Paul went on to pray that not only would we have Christ in our hearts and a purpose which grows out of love and brings spiritual discernment, but that we would know Christ's love.  Paul was not speaking of head knowledge, but of something that exists deep within our hearts.  It is not a collection of facts we have learned, but a precious truth we have experienced.  It has become a part of our very being.

Potential

Then Paul moved on to being filled with God's fullness.  It is part of human nature to partake of something we enjoy to the very fullest.  All-you-can-eat restaurants are successful because people do not want just a little.  They want a lot of what they like! As a matter of fact, they want all they can get--they want to be filled to capacity.  If we naturally fill ourselves to capacity with things that are not spiritual, how much more could we be blessed if we were to fill ourselves at an "all-you-can-eat buffet" of the things of God? Think of the potential if our hunger for God were equal to our hunger for food!

We want to desire the things of God.  And we do not want merely a measured amount of God in our lives; we want to be _filled with the fullness of God.  Verse 20 describes that potential.  It tells us that He is "able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us." What amazing potential! This is what God does if we live for Him.  God exceeds our expectations; that is simply the way He operates.

How many times have we gone through challenging circumstances and wondered, How am I ever going to get through this? We call upon God and He comes to our aid and works out the situation in ways we could not have imagined.  Many times we reflect later and just stand in awe, realizing that we never could have worked it out as well on our own.  Think about the times that you looked back and said, "Wow! God really did something marvelous." That sense of "wow" is part of experiencing the potential of Christ in us.  When God works, He goes beyond our expectations.  That is just the way He is.

Praise

Paul concluded his prayer in verse 21 by saying, "Unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end." Ultimately our words and our service have a purpose; they are to be a sacrifice of praise to God.  What we do should be for God's honor and glory.  He receives the glory when whatever we do originates in Him, is sustained by Him, and is done through Him.  We can be channels of blessing.  When God flows through us, all the praise goes back to Him.  It is nothing in ourselves, and Paul recognized this.  At the end of his prayer, he worshipped God for all that He had done.  As he reflected on the One who gives "exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think," he transitioned to a spirit of praise and thanksgiving.

We can have hearts full of praise as well.  As we go to our knees before the God of Heaven, bringing our prayers for the Church worldwide and for each other, let us be sure that we are deeply rooted in the love of God.  As we come with the right purpose, and look to Him for the potential we know exists in Him and through Him, He will do exceeding abundantly more than we can ask or think.  And the result will be hearts full of praise to the God of Heaven.  What a blessing can be ours as we follow Paul's example in prayer!

And there you have Brother Habre's article, which I hope and pray was of spiritual benefit to all of us, individually and collectively.

And now may the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob just keep us safe, individually and collectively, in these last days in which we live.  Lord willing tomorrow we will present another Daily Thought message.  Your Christian friend and brother, Paul