A POWER PRAYER FOR THE CHURCH
In 1985, Huey Lewis wrote the song “The Power of Love” for the movie “Back to the Future.” The catchy song contained these words: “The power of love is a curious thing; makes one man weep, makes another man sing. Change a hawk to a little white dove; more than feeling; that’s the power of love…It don’t need money, don’t take fame, don’t need no credit card to ride this train…can you feel it?”
A lot of things are said about love in this ditty. Lewis got some things right and other things…well. He was correct that the power of love can change a person, that one needs help from above to know love. The closing question of the song begs an answer: Can you feel it? Can you feel the power of love?
Of course, what I want to know is: Can you feel the power of God’s love in your life? I’ll bet that on most days, as a Christian, you feel kind of powerless. The challenge to be good and to do good finds little motivation in a world where people around you are focused on themselves. And the trials you face in health or family, or finances beats you down so that you feel anything but powerful. Being a Christian is hard. Can you feel the power of God’s love today?
Whether in the first century or the twenty-first century, Christians need a power outside of themselves to live in victory, in joy, in peace. Paul knew this and that’s why he prayed. He wrote of breaking down walls between us; he wrote of the mystery of the gospel being expressed in the church – in us – to show God’s grace is effective. Paul returns to his thought he began in 3:1, “For this reason…” Paul knew that if the Church, if Christians like you and me, were going to be a preview of what God’s Kingdom will look like when Jesus comes again, then God is going to have to help us in a big way.
So, Paul gets down on his knees. That’s not typical of Jews who stood to pray with hands outstretched. No, Paul gets down on his knees and prays a prayer so intense that he prostrates himself in agony before God for the church. This is a power prayer for the church. What does Paul pray?
That Christ may DWELL in your heart (3:16-17a)
Paul makes three requests in his prayer. You may note that the word “power” comes up three times in our text and is implied one more time in v. 19. You can also see an indication of these three requests marked by the words “that” and “may.”
The first part of the prayer petitions God to have Jesus dwell in your heart. He writes, “I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith,” (16-17a).
There is a great confidence in this prayer because Paul knows the limitless source that is God. That source, God’s boundless grace, can be called on to strengthen us through the Holy Spirit in our inner humanity. We’re not looking at outer appearances here, but rather having God get right into our persons and putting Christ in there.
There are two words Paul could have used when he said “dwell” in your hearts. The first option means to visit like a guest, like a stay in a hotel room. When we were in Europe in June, I did not unpack my bag, I did not use the drawers or closet – I lived out of my bag. You know you won’t be there long. The other option is a strong word that means “taking up permanent residence,” to really settle down. What Paul is praying is that our inner beings will be strengthened so that Christ may settle down permanently in our lives.
"That’s fine," you say, "I know that", you say. But you should ask a question. If Christ moves in when you put your faith in him, why would Paul pray for something that has already happened? Let me answer this way:
In every house that Sharon and I have owned, we found ourselves changing something. You have done this too. When we moved to Rosenort, I was hoping that the house we bought would be a “dream house,” – you know, “the one”! But this house we moved into was underwhelming in that respect. Over time, we began to change things. We replaced the laminate flooring with vinyl; we painted the master bedroom and put up barn doors for the closet; we had a new fence built (to keep the neighbour at bay who wants to take me sky-diving); we put a different roof on our screen room. The more we change things the more I like what we have. We are making this house our home; we are loving it with our changes.
That’s what Paul is talking about. When Christ takes up residence in you, he finds the chipped laminate, the old carpet and rips them out. As we do over time, Jesus moves in and begins renovating, cleaning, repairing, expanding. After a time, our inner being begins to reflect his character.
I want to add that this is not just a fact, but as Huey Lewis inadvertently affirmed, it is a feeling. Paul’s desire is that the Lord Jesus, through the Spirit, give us an emotional experience of that fact. God wants you to know his presence and I am confident he wants you to feel his presence.
That you may GRASP the Love of Christ (17b-19a)
Is Paul being redundant? Is he praying again for something that is already true of us? He prays that we will grasp the love of Christ. Don’t we know that Jesus loves us? Haven’t we sung since childhood, “Jesus loves me, this I know?”
Paul’s second request appears superfluous, “And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge.” But it’s not superfluous.
There is a double metaphor in this verse: rooted and grounded. To be rooted is to be planted with deep roots in the soil of Christ’s love. To be grounded or established pictures your life as a house built on the foundation of Christ’s love. Both images express the intense longing of Paul for us to grasp – to take or to seize eagerly – the love of Christ. To know it and to be overwhelmed by it.
When you get married, you marry for love (I hope). You find the one you feel that you can be with “till death do you part.” But isn’t there a time when you think of your spouse, “Do you really love me?” Yes, you know they do, but you don’t always feel it. You want to hear the words “I love you” and at other times you want to experience it in some gesture that says, “I know you.” (Last week I had a bad dream where a man in black with a large black German Shepherd busted into my office at church. It caught me by surprise so that in my sleep I took several breaths in of shock. I woke up and was immediately aware that it was a dream and became quiet, even in my breathing. Sharon heard this and became concerned that I was no longer breathing at all and said, "Are you okay?" It was one of those moments when I felt her love and concern for me. "She needs me," I mused to myself.)
With Jesus, we know he loves us, but there are times when we just don’t get it. We feel like we don’t measure up; we keep disappointing God; we try to obey but fail. What we "know" does not always line up with what we "feel."
Is this not why Paul prays for you and me to have power to grasp the love of Christ? We don’t get it; we don’t understand his love without the power of the Spirit showing us his most loving gesture – Christ on the cross. In the original Greek, the sentence has no ending: “…to grasp how wide and long and high and deep…” Of what? The perfection of God? The mystery of salvation? The NIV probably gets it right in adding the love of Christ because it restates how ungraspable is the love of God. Paul prays that we would know what can’t be known – a sanctified oxymoron – to know the love that surpasses knowledge. The context would suggest that "love" is the subject of this dangling description.
Dwight Moody experienced this love after praying a prayer to know this love. He wrote, “The blessing came upon me suddenly like a flash of lightning. For months I had been hungering and thirsting for power in service…Well, one day, in the city of New York – oh, what a day! – I cannot describe it, I seldom refer to it; it is almost too sacred an experience to name…I can only say that God revealed himself to me, and I had such an experience of his love that I had to ask him to stay his hand. I went to preaching again. The sermons were not different; I did not present new truths, and yet hundreds were converted.”
Can you imagine having to ask God to stop giving you an experience of his love? George Whitefield often found when he prayed at night, he began to experience God’s love so powerfully that he couldn’t get to sleep. He had to ask God to stop because he had to get some rest.
That you may be FULL(ER) of God (19b)
Paul’s third request really builds on and mirrors the other two. He prays, “…that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”
Paul wants us to be filled with his Christ; to be consumed with Jesus; to have God take us deeper into himself. To be filled fuller and overflowing with God’s moral perfection, his excellencies, empowering presence – all that God is as God. Yes!! To be filled with what? The radiant power and presence of God himself!
Who is God? What will we know and feel if we are filled with God? John says, “Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God…God is love! This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him,” (1 John 4:7-9). God is love!
Posture is more important that we give it credit for. As Paul kneeled in prayer in agony for his congregation, I believe in kneeling before God. We submit our bodies as well as our spirits to the Lord.
So, consider this: when someone gives you a gift, what’s your posture? You reach out your hands. God wants to give you a gift: that you may be filled with himself.
This may seem too charismatic for some of you, so for the moment close your eyes and reach out your hands. You can rest them on your lap, palms up. This posture tells your spirit and the Holy Spirit that you are ready to receive what he wants to give you. Maybe it’s an experience of his love; it may be an answer to prayer; it may be wisdom for some trial you are facing; maybe you won’t receive anything right away. I believe the important thing is to say to the Lord: “I want to receive what you want to give me. Fill me to the measure of the fullness of your being.”
Back in 2017, I learned a little photo trick from our Grand Canyon tour guide. I wanted to capture the beauty of the canyon in all its glory. But he told me to capture more sky in my frame. I did as I was instructed and was blown away by the composition. In my mind, the logical shot was to focus on the earth below, but I had to retrain my mind to look up. In doing so, the immensity of the sky makes more of the subject below. Like a tiny house on the prairie, focusing on the grandness of the blue atmosphere makes the house stand out all the more.
Paul’s prayer draws our attention off of life and its intricate issues and problems and puts our focus on God. He prays for an experience of the Holy Other to put into perspective life as we know it. When we consider the immensity of God’s love for us, we are empowered to face life’s challenges and to experience God’s gifts of joy.
This is a huge “ask” of God, isn’t it?
That God would give us the power both through his Spirit and through the indwelling Christ.
That God would strengthen us to grasp the magnitude of Christ’s love.
That God would give us power to be filled with God’s own fullness.
The result is that we would expand our vision of what life in Christ is all about. Will God do this for us?
No prayer that has even been framed has uttered a bolder request. Is it possible to ask God too much? No, for the Father’s giving exceeds our capacity for asking or imagining. We must pray this prayer. If you love Jesus, you must want more of him, to experience him in all of his fullness.
Fredrich Lehman wrote a song with better lyrics than that of Huey Lewis about the power of love. You know the song:
Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made.
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry.
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.
O love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure—
The saints’ and angels’ song.
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! AMEN!