May God Strengthen Us with His Power

"And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge....(Ephesians 3:17-19)

Why should we ask God to strengthen us with His power? Certainly one reason is that Jesus promised His disciples that they would be clothed with power from on high, that the Spirit would impart His power for witnessing (Luke 24:45-49). We rely on that power as we go forward in obedience to His Great Commission (Matthew 28:20).

But we need the Spirit's power for more than ministry. This is something Paul realized and prayed for the Ephesians. He asked God to strengthen them with power through the indwelling Spirit so they would grasp the width, length, breadth and height of Christ’s love and would “know [personally experience, in increasing measure] this love that surpasses knowledge….” (Ephesians 3:14-19, italics added)

Is this a surprising thought, that we would need the Spirit’s power to grasp and experience the enormity of Christ’s love? Why would that matter to Paul? Why should it matter to us? Perhaps because our call is not to ministry, but to Christ, to a love relationship and personal fellowship with Jesus.

Some of us may never have known unconditional human love, and find it difficult to relate to such love from Christ. Though we may intellectually understand divine love, it is only the Spirit’s power within that can make that love real in our experience. We don’t serve a distant and uncaring King, but the lover of our souls. How much greater is our service when His love fills our hearts—how much farther we can run, how much higher we can climb, how much more joy can we experience.

Let us pray that God will strengthen us with His power to know, to experience, Christ’s love.