We all want happiness…joy…satisfaction.
It is craving deep in our soul.
Just about every commercial on TV feeds on our desire for the “good life.”
So how do you get it? How do you experience it? Is it even possible?
I believe Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3:14-21 is the ultimate prayer for the abundant life.
It is perhaps the ultimate prayer of Scripture…outside of Jesus’ prayer of surrender in the Garden of Gethsemane. “Not my will but Yours be done.” But even the spirit of Jesus’ prayer is encapsulated in Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3.
J. Armitage Robinson said of Paul’s prayer:
No prayer that has ever been framed has uttered a bolder request.
What is Paul’s bold request?
That we would be filled with all the fullness of God (3:19).
Think about it.
Paul is asking that we would experience all that God is…all the glory manifested in His character…all the joy emanating from the eternal fellowship of the Trinity…coursing through every cell of our bodies.
That every ounce of our being would be filled with all the abundance of God.
Wow.
G. Campbell Morgan said of Paul’s request:
To be “filled unto all the fulness of God” is to find the ultimate experience of life. Where this is so, there is no true desire of the soul unsatisfied, no power of the soul undeveloped or idle. The true meaning of life is discovered, and that not as an ideal…but as an actual experience. It is eternal life; it is perfection; it is satisfaction.
Is it possible that at the core of all of our longings is a thirst for the living God?
We long for God but mistake it for a longing for something else. So we pursue the “something else” with almost a reckless abandon…sometimes even an addiction…until we realize that it is a dead end.
Our heart still aches for contentment…for security…for joy.
Only experienced in the fullness of God.
In Ephesians 3, Paul gets on his knees and pleads with God to enable the Ephesian believers…and all of us who are created by the same Father in heaven…to experience this divine fullness.
It begins with an INNER STRENGTHENING.
That God would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man (3:16).
The experience of fullness begins on the inside…not the outside.
We tend to think that only good circumstances lead to the good life…but it is possible to have every possession on earth…and even good health…and not be satisfied. In fact, this is the experience of many “famous people” who are still searching for the good life when everyone around them think they already have it and are desperately pursuing what they have and are not satisfied with.
It is an endless cycle of vanity.
In a profound moment of honesty, actor Jim Carrey once said:
I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it’s not the answer.
Instead the Bible says that the “good life” begins on the inside. It is a joy that radiates outward from the heart not a happiness that soaks inward from outside circumstances.
So we begin our prayer for God’s abundance by asking God to strengthen our inner person through the power of His Spirit.
We ask God to enlarge our soul to receive all that He is.
We ask God to make us a person of character rather than a person of comfort.
We ask God to do whatever it takes to grow us from the inside out.
It is a scary prayer.
Because God’s strength is only experienced in our weakness.
Here is the bottom line: We often don’t experience God’s fullness because we don’t trust God enough to pursue Him alone…to desire Him alone…to surrender to Him alone.
We keep running to broken cisterns instead of to the living well.
But if we truly want Him, then the desire for inner strengthening leads to the next request: FULL SURRENDER.
That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith (3:17).
It is a simple prayer but it is loaded with implications.
The word for “dwell” in the Greek language has the idea of “being at home with.”
William MacDonald described the request this way:
We enter into the enjoyment of His indwelling through faith. This involves constant dependence on Him, constant surrender to Him, and constant recognition of His “at home-ness.”
At home-ness.
That Christ would be “at home” in our hearts.
There is a classic story by Robert Boyd Munger, My Heart, Christ’s Home, that captures this idea.
When we trust in Jesus Christ as our Savior, Christ comes in and takes residence in our hearts. But He may not always feel “at home” in our hearts. Often times we may treat Him like an unwanted guest…or we may restrict Him to certain parts of our heart while keeping some parts hidden from Him…outside His reach…outside His Lordship.
We want Christ…but on our own terms.
We want Him…but only a part of Him.
This is where Jesus’ prayer…”Not my will but Yours be done”…comes into Paul’s prayer.
It is full surrender.
It is saying, “Lord, I don’t like this…I don’t want this…I am not sure what You are doing through this…but I trust You. I surrender to You. You can have all of me because I want all of You. Not my will but Yours be done.”
Jesus’ experienced God’s fullness because He was fully surrendered to His Father.
Our path to fullness follows Him.
With this focus on God’s inner strengthening and a full surrender to His will, then we finally come to the last piece of the puzzle.
ABSOLUTE SATURATION with the love of Christ.
That you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height–to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge. (3:17-18)
To be totally saturated with the love of Christ.
To be overwhelmed by His incomprehensible grace.
To know a love that surpasses any love that you have ever known before.
To allow yourself to be loved by God.
It is a strange thought…but perhaps our greatest struggle is to allow ourselves to be loved by God.
We keep fighting to earn His love…to look good…to prove ourselves worthy.
When all God wants is for us to fall into His arms and be loved by Him.
As a father, I remember how awesome it was for my children to run to me with arms outstretched, shouting, “Daddy, Daddy, Daddy!” Being happy to see me…to run to me…to want nothing more than to be embraced by me.
Holding someone who desires you fully is to experience one of the greatest joys of life.
Being held by someone who desires you fully is to experience a taste of the fullness of life.
God’s joy is holding you.
Our joy is being held by Him.
We love Him because He first loved us.
Or as Pastor John Piper puts it…God is most glorified when we are most satisfied in Him.
Or as D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones once noted…
Our chief defect as Christians is failing to realize Christ’s love to us.
Stop for a moment and consider this.
Behind my fear…anxiety…depression…anger…frustration…discouragement…is an inability to rest in the sovereign love of God.
The unwillingness to acknowledge my need and to be held in His strong arms.
The blindness to the incomprehensible love that He showed in humbling Himself, entering my world, taking on human flesh, dying in my place, and conquering death to give me real hope.
Offering Himself to me so that I could experience all of Him.
To know Him.
To love Him.
To be held by Him.
That is the essence of eternal life.
And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. (John 17:3)
This is what it means to be filled with all the fullness of God.
An inner strengthening through God’s Spirit…
Leading to a full surrender to His will…
Enabled by an absolute saturation with Christ’s love.
It is saying, “God, here is all of me so that I can experience all of you.”
That is the ultimate prayer worth praying.
Because that is the only life worth living.
That was rich!
Thank you Steve 😊
Thank you Pastor Steve. Have a blessed New Year resting in Him.