September 28, 2016
I don’t know if you have ever used the prayers of Paul found in his epistles as templates to pray for others. These are prayers for his readers, and they usually begin with the words “I pray or I fall to my knees,” and so forth. I would suggest you scope out those prayers and see how useful they would be in praying for family and friends. There are two major ones in Ephesians 1 and 3, They are also found in Romans 15, Philippians 1, Colossians 1 and 4 and in 1 Thessalonians 1, 3, and 5, and in 2 Thessalonians 1 and 3. Take a look, for instance, at Ephesians 3.
Ephesians 3:14-19 (NLT) – “When I think of all this [wonder of God’s plan of redemption], I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, 15 the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth.
16 I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit.
17 Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong.
18 And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is.
19 May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.”
Think what Paul is praying in this prayer – and even more importantly – consider how this applies to your life and mine.
Paul is praying that God’s Holy Spirit would so work in our lives that our inner soul will be strengthened and that Jesus Christ will take root in our life. And most importantly, that our faith in Christ will be rooted in God’s love.
A lot of people will say, “My problem is, I just don’t love God enough.” But folks, that’s not the real problem. The real problem is that you don’t realize how much God loves you. If you and I could comprehend just how much God loves us, there would never be a love-of-God problem on our part.
Paul is praying here that through the Holy Spirit we would have the power to understand “how wide, how long, how high, and how deep” God’s love for us is. If we could just grasp the magnitude of His love for us, it would blow us away.
Jesus told two parables about a special treasure and about a pearl of great price in Matthew 13.
Matthew 13:44-46 (NLT) – “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure that a man discovered hidden in a field. In his excitement, he hid it again and sold everything he owned to get enough money to buy the field. 45 Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant on the lookout for choice pearls. 46 When he discovered a pearl of great value, he sold everything he owned and bought it!”
We often interpret these two parables as being about salvation – that it is so valuable that we should do anything to embrace God’s salvation for us, that no cost is too great to pay. In other words, we interpret the verse as if it is us who finds the hidden treasure and the pearl of great price and no cost is too great so that we can obtain them.
Look at these two parables from a different perspective. In the context of Matthew 13, Jesus has told four other parables before this, and in at least three of these – if not all four – the main character in the parable is a symbol of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the one scattering seed on four types of soil; Jesus is the one who plants good seed that is later corrupted with weed seed from an enemy; Jesus is the one who plants the tiny mustard seed that grows into such a great tree. Perhaps Jesus is also the one who places the small amount of yeast that permeates the whole loaf of dough.
If, up to this point, in chapter 13, Jesus has been the central figure, why would we change this approach when it comes to the special treasure and special pearl? I think that Jesus is the man who discovers the treasure and sells all He has to buy the field. I think Jesus is the man who finds the pearl of great price and sells everything He owns to buy it. And who is that special treasure? Who is that pearl of great price? That us – you and me.
2 Corinthians 8:9 (NASB) – “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.”
Do you want to know how much God loves you? He loves you so much He is willing to give His all, His everything, to win us to Himself.
Back in Ephesians, Paul prays for his readers – and for us as well – “May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.”
There’s the promise – the more we can comprehend God’s love for us, the more complete we will be, filled with all the fullness of life and power from God!
May this be a week where you begin to grasp God’s incredible love for you!
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