A Prayer for Strength

Ephesians 3:14-21

14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,
15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named,
16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being,
17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
20 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,
21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

I. We pray to a good Father vs. 14-15 |
14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named,
Explanation
There are two prayers in Ephesians. In the first prayer (1:15-23) Paul prays that the church would know God better. The preacher wants the body of believers to understand who God is. Why?

• A healthy understanding of God builds gratitude.

• A healthy understanding of God can lead to a wonderful life.
  That should be the heart of every Pastor, leader, mother, father, friend, that we would know God better. Paul puts it like this...having the eyes of your hearts enlightened (1:18).
  He’s a good father and Paul does not want you to miss that.
  Job 42:5 I heard about you with my ear, but now my eye sees you.
  When your eyes are opened you see better.
  Seeing leads to action
  After you see the Lord, you must then move to action, and that’s what this second
  prayer of Paul is about. In fact, the first three chapters deal with the knowledge of

God, doctrine and principles. This prayer and the last three chapters deal with walking out what we know.
14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named,

Prayer to a good father is reasonable.

• For this reason I bow...
He gave reasons we should pray, (called 2:5, his workmanship 2:10, have been brought near 2:13...)
B.L. God has done a work in us so remarkable; He has put something in us so special our reaction to anything life brings our way should be first met with prayer to Him.
How do we handle, suffering, evil, confusion, despair, sickness, loss...we handle it in many ways, but our first move should be in prayer to our Father. Considering the recent tragedy in Uvalde Texas (21 dead 19 children 2 teachers) how should we pray?

• Pray families are cared for

• Pray the gospel is fleshed out

• Pray hope is not loss

• Pray God uses this to show himself in new ways

• Pray families will be drawn closer to one another

Victorious Prayer involves relationship | Come Follow Me

We pray because God is a good Father. Our Father can take something meant for evil and turn it for good.
In your own you may feel, like if God is a good father why am I down, discouraged? Sometimes I don’t feel like I have victory in my life?”

Luke 18:18-27 the story of the Rich Ruler. He asked what must he do to inherit eternal life? Good question, Jesus told him to keep the commandments, his reply, “I have kept these since my youth.” Then Christ told him to sell his possessions, give the proceeds to the poor, you will have treasure in heaven; and come follow me. When he heard these things, he went away sad because he was extremely rich.

The rich young ruler only heard, sell your stuff, give what you have to the poor, you will have treasure in heaven. He didn’t hear the victory in those commands, but the victory is in the last phrase ...and come follow me.

May I suggest one reason we don’t have victory in our lives is because like the rich ruler we fail to hear Christ say, “come follow me.” What is the one area where you want victory, the one area you are holding on to with all your might, listen to Christ as he say’s come follow me.

You don’t have to walk away holding on to that thing. The Rich ruler did because he calculated that Christ was not enough. He is enough, listen to Him as he says come follow me. He can give you the victory because he’s a good father.

We Pray to a God Father We Pray to a Capable Father

II. We Pray to a Capable Father vs. 16
16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.

We are very emotional.

Our attention quickly shifts. We are easily pulled away in prayer. Have you ever been praying and fall asleep? Or you mind drifts and what started out as prayer turns into a list of errands you need to run, post you need to check, or work you need to finish? There are times in prayer when we need to stay put.

To do that, God must strengthen us.

• Strengthen | means to become strong, to gain strength.

• Power | the ability to function in some type of way. This is inner strength

B.L. God can strengthen you with inner power so

• your prayer life will be fruitful

• you can understand (to some degree) how God works (18. breath, length,
  height, and depth)

• You will see God as a Father who is loving (19 to know the love of God)
  Our Capable Father wants to be the source of our prayers forever.
  17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith
  This request is for Christ to take up permeant residence in our hearts through faith. Dwell = reside, live, settle down. We need Christ to dwell in our hearts, in other words the request is for Christ to move in. When he moves in he becomes our constant source of satisfaction.
  Lord don’t just pass through our emotions giving us some spiritual high, dwell there!
  Christ does now want to check in for the weekend and maybe get a late checkout on Monday, He wants to move in. When you are a temporary guest you cant rearrange furniture, you can’t paint walls etc...(Edenfield apartments I painted the walls had to paint them back before we moved)
  B.L. Wherever He dwells, He changes.

Our Capable Father wants to be the source of our Joy

Filled with all the fullness of God

God wants you to have all of Him. This is incomprehensible.

• The one who hangs the earth on nothing,

• stills the water with his power,

• makes all of hell stand naked before him and Job says these are but the
  fringes of his power...wants you to have all of him.

• Set the stars in the sky, numbers the clouds, commands the lightning and
  directs hail...wants you to have all of him.

• Created the behemoth whose bones are like tubes of bronze,

• the horse who does not shy from battle,

• the leviathan with his impenetrable scaly skin and sharp teeth wants you to
  have all of him. This is incompressible.

Filled
God ceases to be in control. A person filled with happiness is dominated by joy, a person filled with God is dominated by God, meaning God is in complete control.

Put out Fires

= to fill completely. We need to be filled because we leak. When we leak

A preacher asked several volunteers to help with an illustration. They were to play an imaginary fire struck. One was to be the driver, another on the horn, one man the hose, one secure the ladder one was to turn the steering wheel in the back. After assigning them their job he asked them their purpose? They all yelled out their job responsibilities. The preacher yelled back wrong. Your purpose every one of you is to put out fires!

Our first job as children of God is to pray to our good father, pray to our capable father and whatever he says do, do it.