The Power at Work Within Us

“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.”  -Ephesians 3:20-21 (ESV.  Read Ephesians 3:14-21).

Paul prayed for the church at Ephesus that they might be “strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 16-19).  Many of you have read “From My Daily Devotional Journal” for a year now.  As we close out 2012, I borrow Paul’s thoughts and pray this same prayer for each of you that Paul prayed for his fellow believers in Ephesus long ago.  It is the Spirit of the living God who applies to each individual believer the presence and power of the living God.  May you experience an indwelling of the Spirit that you may discern what is right and good and have the spiritual strength to follow God in all aspects of life.  The Spirit also allows Christ to dwell in your hearts through faith.  It was the Spirit who first prompted you to be convicted of sins and to come to the Savior for forgiveness and salvation.  Now may that same Holy Spirit lead you to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  And may your love grow, the “agape” self-giving kind of love that counts not the cost to self but desires what is best for those loved.  It is only through knowing the love of Christ that we can love others.  We love God because He first loved us.  And with His love operating in our lives, we will be on the receiving end of “the fullness of God.”

In the prayer continued in verses 20 and 21, it seems that Paul warmed even more to the content of his prayer.  He breaks into a doxology of praise.  He thought of how magnanimous was almighty God in answering prayer and extending His love to us:  to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think!” (v. 20).  We can’t begin to comprehend the extent of God’s power and work through Jesus Christ.  But we are recipients of that power (dunamis).  It is like resurrection power:  the power that raised Christ from the dead.  And the same dunamis—living, active power, can raise us from the deadness and lethargy of our ineffective lives and make us active and productive in the Lord’s kingdom.  The power works within us—in the inner person to motivate, to activate, to help us participate in what God is doing in the world and through His church.  “Without me, you can do nothing,” Jesus taught His disciples in John 15:5.  We must remember that this power, transferred to each willing believer, is not a luxury; it is a necessity for our work in the kingdom.  And then came the affirmation of promise in Paul’s prayer:  what we do for Christ in this world will “be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever! (Ephesians 3:21). With all this in mind, what can prevent us from praying Paul’s prayer written to the Ephesians and anticipating God’s answering the prayer now…with results that will last through eternity?

Prayer:  Lord we pray for an outpouring of the Spirit to motivate and activate us in the work of the Lord.  We look forward with great anticipation to what You will do in and through us in the coming year.  May we daily be “strengthened with power through the Holy Spirit, …rooted and grounded in love…and filled with all the fullness of God.”  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.