The New Testament Challenge Companion--Day 30!

Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2010 Reading for the Day:  Luke 9 and Ephesians 1-3 Focus on Eph. 3:14-21

The theme verse for our “Get in the Game” Campaign last fall was Ephesians 3:20.  Today, let’s look at that verse in its context:  ¹⁴When I think of the wisdom and scope of God’s plan, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, ¹⁵the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. ¹⁶I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will give you mighty inner strength through his Holy Spirit. ¹⁷And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love. ¹⁸And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love really is. ¹⁹May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it. Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from God.  ²⁰Now glory be to God! By his mighty power at work within us, he is able to accomplish infinitely more than we would ever dare to ask or hope. ²¹May he be given glory in the church and in Christ Jesus forever and ever through endless ages. Amen.  What a prayer!  Paul understood the majesty of God, the amazing nature of His plan for us, and the absolute necessity for us to grow deeper and stronger in the Holy Spirit in order to experience the fullness of God’s “marvelous” love.  Once Paul exhorted us to those understandings, he erupted in spontaneous adoration and praise for God:  NOW glory be to God!  Have you ever thought about God’s wisdom or the Holy Spirit’s presence within us, or the depth and height and breadth of God’s love and just erupted in praise?  I hope so!  But Paul didn’t stop with praise.  He reminded us that God’s power at work within US by the Holy Spirit is able to accomplish infinitely more than we would ever dare to ask or hope.  When we get discouraged—and we do get discouraged sometimes; when we think that things aren’t going to get better—and we do think that sometimes; when we think our situation is impossible, and sometimes our situations do seem impossible, Paul calls us to remember there's no limit to God’s mighty power at work within us. He IS able to accomplish infinitely more—think about that: INFINITELY more!  That means without limit—than we would ever dare to ask or hope. WOW!  That’s a passage worth memorizing, because we all get down sometimes, but God’s hand is not short—He is able to do INFINITELY more through us—than we can imagine. Imagine that!

Heavenly Father, thank You for the truth of Paul’s prayer!  Thank You for being limitless in Your ability to accomplish the impossible, the improbable and the mundane.  Fill me with Your Holy Spirit so I may live victoriously regardless of what I face today.  This I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.