power

Opening Prayer:  O Heavenly Father, the one through whom all of fatherhood derives its name, give us, this day, the power and the strength to experience the life and the love and the fullness you created us for.  We have absolutely no hope of doing that apart from you.  Lord, have mercy.  Amen.

Scripture: Ephesians 3:14-21

Journal: Are you living out of God’s strength and power these days, or out of your own?  What would it look like to live a life that is empowered by God?

Reflection: What if the main reason we are not able to dwell with Christ in our hearts through faith, or stay rooted and grounded in his love, or grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, or be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God, is because we have not yet availed ourselves of his power to do so?  What if the main reason we are unable to experience the life and the love and the fullness we were created for is because we keep trying to do it all in our own strength?

After all, the basis for this entire prayer is that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen us with power through his Spirit in our inner being.  All of these amazing things are to be done out of his abundant resources, not our own.  He is the only one who is able to do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work in us.  Until we begin to use his power, rather than our own, we will be continually frustrated.  We will live lives that are so much less than the lives he imagined for us.

His power is the power.  His power is dynamis.  It is the Greek word we get the word dynamite from.  It is power that has effect, power that accomplishes what it sets out to accomplish, power that changes things, power that transforms.  But only if we use it.  We must stop trying to do it all ourselves and avail ourselves of God’s power.  We must live empowered lives.  Only then will we begin to experience the immeasurably more than we ask or imagine that Paul is talking about.

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Lord, only through you, and your power, can we experience a life that is immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine.  Work within us, through the power of your Spirit, to produce that life.  Amen.