At present, our family doesn't have any pets, but I'll admit that my attention is easily gripped by interesting animal videos that get shared online. Just this week, I was watching a video of a family that adopted five dogs, and all five dogs loved swimming in their backyard pool. It was a fun video to watch, and the happiness of the dogs made me feel happy.
A few weeks ago, I saw another video. It was a video of an elephant that got stuck in a ravine. As it tried to climb out, the walls of the ravine would crumble and cause the elephant to lose its footing. It tried over and over to escape, but couldn't, and it grew absolutely exhausted in the process.
Nearby, a construction crew happened to notice the elephant's plight and decided to help. They took a large excavator and began carving out one side of the ravine so it could function like a set of stairs. The elephant seemed to understand that the men were trying to help, and she made a few additional attempts to get out, but she was so worn out that even with their help, and even with better footing, she still struggled.
After many attempts, she started to make some progress, but then found herself losing her footing yet again and nearly giving up. That's when the man driving the excavator brought the digging arm of the machine behind the elephant and propped her in place so she could lean on it. Then, very gently, he nudged her further up the steep hill, and with his help, she finally made it to the top where she was out of danger and could reconnect with her herd.
Have you ever felt too weak for the challenges that you were facing? Have you ever come to the point when you realized you had exhausted your strength and were near giving up?
Without a doubt, we need strength to navigate life's trials and challenges, and I'm grateful to know that the Lord graciously offers His strength to His children. In Ephesians 3:14-21, Paul takes time to explain the fact that the Lord supplies the strength that we need in the ways we need it most.
I. Your greatest form of inner strength doesn't come from you
““For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith””
In the verses preceding this passage, Paul made it clear that he was in the midst of suffering. I don't get the impression that it was the worst suffering he had ever experienced, but it certainly wasn't pleasant. He remained in Rome under home confinement, at his own expense, waiting for a trial before the civic authorities. And even though Paul regularly welcomed visitors who came to Rome to visit him, I get the impression that he greatly missed the liberty he once enjoyed to travel freely.
But in the midst of this, Paul was confident that God had a purpose for what he was going through. He was also confident that he could bring his concerns to the Lord in prayer, and that's what Paul regularly chose to do. But Paul wasn't only praying for himself. Paul spent much of his time in prayer for the church in Ephesus and believers throughout the world.
When you're in a position of spiritual leadership like Paul was, you develop a great concern for the spiritual growth of those you're leading and influencing. You think of them often. You lift them up before the Lord. You ask God to intervene on their behalf, much like a loving parent prays for their children. Paul was doing that very thing for the believers he addressed this letter to. He asked the Lord to give them strength and make them strong.
I love how Paul made a point, not only to tell them that he was praying for their strength, but to articulate how that strength would be facilitated in their life. As believers in Christ, the Holy Spirit was living in them. Through Him, they would be granted the power they needed in this world.
“ “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.””
Paul wrote to the church to remind these believers that they would have the strength they needed, but that strength wouldn't find its source in them. Most of the humanistic philosophies I hear espoused in our day are trying to convince us that we have everything we need within us already. We don't. If we did, we wouldn't have needed Jesus to come and rescue us.
But we do have the privilege to welcome Jesus to dwell in our hearts through faith, just like Paul expresses. As Paul speaks of the heart, he's talking about the center of our emotions and will. If we welcome Christ to reign in that place, we'll see a demonstration of His power, and we'll become convinced that our greatest form of inner strength isn't actually coming from us. It's found in Him and revealed through Him.
II. It takes the strength of Christ to comprehend the love of Christ
““—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3:17b-19)”
During the course of my adult life, I have purchased four homes. Two were purchased as investment properties, and two were our primary residences. Only one of those four homes was in ideal condition when we bought it. The rest required a lot of work, inside and outside.
One of the homes had very large rhododendrons growing right next to the front foundation. They were very large and were poised to damage the house, so I decided to remove them. I cut all the branches off, dug around the trunks, then tried my best to remove the stumps by rocking them back and forth. But those things didn't want to budge. They were rooted too deeply. Nothing I did seemed to help. I got to the point where it felt like I might be spending the rest of my life trying to get them out of the ground, but eventually, I succeeded.
When you think about the nature of your life in Christ, how deeply rooted does it seem to be? How easy is it to make you budge? How connected are you to the love of Christ? Do you understand how significant His love really is?
Jesus loved us when we were still His enemies. Jesus loved us even though we vicariously participated in His crucifixion by making it necessary. Jesus loves us even though we're prone to rebellion. Jesus loves us even though there's nothing we can offer Him that He truly needs.
As our faith in Christ matures, our understanding of the nature of His love should be magnified. When we grow closer to Him, we start to realize just how far we really were from Him in the first place. As we grow in holiness, we start to realize just how entranced we were with our sin.
Paul was praying for believers to develop an understanding of the breadth, length, height, and depth of Christ's love. But to understand the love of Christ, we need to be empowered by the strength of Christ. We're not strong enough or smart enough to "get it" with our own limited understanding. His strength is sufficient in our weakness.
And as we draw closer to Him in this manner, Paul speaks of us being "filled with all the fullness of God." He's speaking of living in such a way that we develop an appreciation for the fact that there is nothing lacking in our relationship with the Lord. When we have Jesus, we truly have all we need in this world.
Growing up, our family experienced a long stretch of poverty, so I used to think having a nice home, healthy finances, and cars that didn't constantly break down (in the center of town in front of my friends) would satisfy my heart. At this season of my life, the Lord has chosen to bless me with everything that I thought I was lacking during that season, and here's what I've learned; I'd rather have Jesus. Nothing else that I've ever obtained has satisfied me like He has. But I didn't come to that realization on my own. It has taken the strength of Christ to enable me to comprehend the nature of the love of Christ.
III. Get ready for God to exceed your expectations
““Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” ”
Ephesians 3:20-21 marks the halfway point of Paul's letter. Up to this point, he's been explaining the "behind the scenes" activities of the Lord. In the second half of the book, he's going to demonstrate how we're supposed to live in response to everything God has done and is doing for us.
But here's what I know about my understanding of what God has done. He is able to do even more than I can wrap my mind around. He can do more than I could imagine in my most elaborate daydreams. And that makes me wonder if my prayers are far too small. I'm wondering if the Lord is waiting for me (and you) to begin praying with real faith, the kind of faith that isn't afraid to ask Him to do impossible things.
In all honesty, I think we frequently come to God with really safe and sanitized prayers. We ask for His intervention in ways that seem to indicate that we're not really confident He's going to act on our behalf. But God is able to do far beyond what we've ever asked Him to do. He can save the most distant person. He can correct societal problems. He can fix the most messed up situations. In fact, He promises to restore the entire creation and rule and reign here in the most personal way with perfect benevolence.
As we trust in Jesus, and are indwelled by the Holy Spirit, please keep in mind that the same power that will one day restore this entire creation is already at work within us and accessible to us. That's not a statement about a future reality. That's a fact about our present reality, right now!
I became a pastor nearly 25 years ago, and most every day of my life since that time has allowed me to speak with brothers and sisters in Christ who are experiencing trials and struggles of all kinds, some of their own making and some completely out of their control. More often than not, they have also expressed the opinion that they were powerless to do anything about their struggles. They felt powerless to overcome temptation, despair, conflict, sorrow, or fear.
But we haven't been left powerless in this world, so let's start preaching a message to our hearts that lines up with the word of God more accurately. And let's get ready for God to start exceeding our expectations.
The Father will supply the strength you require. In fact, He already has through the Son and the Spirit. You have what you need, but it didn't come from you.
As Paul was praying for the early believers to walk in the strength of Christ, let's join him in that prayer by praying the very same thing for ourselves and one another.
© John Stange, 2021
