Monday, August 26, 2013

Paul’s Prayer for His Readers




“’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.’”
Eph. 3:16-17 a(NIV)

Paul beseeched the Father on behalf of the followers at Ephesus. Let’s study what he requested from God.

“. . . out of his glorious riches . . .” Paul asks God to reach into his treasure trove of riches and search for what the believers need to make their lives and their witness stronger. Our Father does this for us who follow Him in this 21st Century.

“. . . he may strengthen you . . .” Everything God brings into our lives strengthens us in time.      We find we understand issues that appear later in our lives because of what we have experienced in the past. We also can understand another person’s similar circumstances and can extend God’s grace to them.

“. . . with power . . .  We find we are stronger than we think because of God’s working in our lives. I have a greeting card to send to someone that is shaped with the word “BELIEVE” die-cut as the front. When I open it, the message is “You are stronger            than you think”
“. . . through his Spirit in your inner being . . .”  John Wesley once preached that when we                              give our hearts to the Lord, a little bit of God comes into our hearts. We have His  Holy Spirit living inside us. God works through us.

“. . . so that Christ may dwell in your hearts . . .” God places His Holy Spirit in us for a reason. He                creates in us a place for Jesus to live in us and through us.

“. . . through faith.” We have to believe that God works for us and through us. “Without faith, it is impossible to please God. (Heb. 11:6)

From time to time we need to return to the basics of our belief and concentrate on Who God is and thank Him for what He gives us and what He does for us..

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Graphic: Readfreshmanna.blogspot.com



7 comments:

  1. Thank you...I love these verses...and they speak to me tonight. Thank you again for your prayers today. I believe God has spoken...and we are withdrawing from that particular arena. It is for the best. Thank you again for taking the time to pray!
    Blessings to you today in all that you do.
    Sincerely,
    Pam

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. God has a plan for each of His children. We have to ask Him to guide us through them.

      Delete
  2. Hello there, I just thought I would share with you one of my favorite books is on Paul's prayers by D. A. Carson -- A Call to Spiritual Reformation: Priorities from Paul and his prayers.

    Thanks for your blog, I'm really enjoying what you have here.

    Blessings to you this week.
    -Barbara

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Barbara:
      Thank you for visiting my blog and thank you for the book title. Please feel free to stop in whenever you can.

      Delete
  3. I, too, love these verses. Oh, how I want them to sink deep into my DNA!

    Thanks for faithfully sharing them, Cecelia.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Rhonda: These verses speak to me. I have to memorize a verse for Wednesday night Bible Study. I have to really get it to the core of my being (DNA) before I can even start it. I have 22 hours to concentrate on it.

      Delete
  4. This is another of my favorites! I'm glad you shared this with us. :)

    ReplyDelete

I would be honored to hear what you think about this.

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