{"id":2464,"date":"2023-03-22T09:24:45","date_gmt":"2023-03-22T13:24:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=2464"},"modified":"2023-03-22T09:24:45","modified_gmt":"2023-03-22T13:24:45","slug":"ephesians-316","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/22\/ephesians-316\/","title":{"rendered":"Ephesians 3:16"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To listen to this reflection as a podcast,\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/a>.

Every day during this season of Lent we\u2019re looking at one of the \u201c3:16\u201d verses of the Bible, spotlighting some of the significant theological statements that happen to fall on the 16th<\/sup> verse of the third chapter of a number of Old and New Testament books.\u00a0<\/em>
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\u201cI pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being.\u201d\u00a0(Ephesians 3:16)
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There\u2019s a particularly poignant moment in Prince Caspian<\/em>, the second book of the Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis\u2019 spiritual adventure series for younger and older readers alike.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0
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It\u2019s been a long while since young Lucy has seen Aslan, the enormous lion who represents Christ in the Narnian realm.\u00a0 When at last they are reunited, Lucy gasps, \u201cAslan, you\u2019re bigger.\u201d \u201cThat is because you are older, little one,\u201d he answers.\u00a0 \u201cNot because you are?\u201d she asks.\u00a0 \u201cI am not,\u201d Aslan responds.\u00a0 \u201cBut every year you grow, you will find me bigger.\u201d
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Every year that we grow older in the Lord, it should be our happy discovery that God is larger than we had previously dreamed.\u00a0
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But for far too many of us, God hasn\u2019t been growing bigger.\u00a0 We have held on to a mental snapshot of God that remains static and unchanging.\u00a0 That may help account for the ongoing popularity of a little book that was published 70 years ago \u2013 Your God is Too Small <\/em>by J.B. Phillips.\u00a0 Phillips makes the case that the God we imagine \u2013 the God we therefore end up believing is actually there \u2013 may seem to be disinterested, distracted, or hopelessly inept.\u00a0 Our own imagination makes God seem small.
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But the God we encounter in Scripture is not small.\u00a0 He has the power to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine.
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That\u2019s the gist of the apostle Paul\u2019s exuberant prayer in the middle of the New Testament letter called Ephesians (3:14-21).\u00a0 Here it is in full, with today\u2019s \u201c3:16\u201d verse highlighted.
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\u201cFor this reason I kneel\u00a0before the Father,\u00a0from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name.\u00a0<\/em>I pray that out of his glorious riches\u00a0he may strengthen you with power\u00a0through his Spirit in your<\/em><\/strong> <\/em>inner being,<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0so that Christ may dwell in your hearts\u00a0through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted\u00a0and established in love,\u00a0may have power, together with all the Lord\u2019s holy people,\u00a0to grasp how wide and long and high and deep\u00a0is the love of Christ,\u00a0and to know this love that surpasses knowledge\u2014that you may be filled\u00a0to the measure of all the fullness of God.\u00a0 Now to him who is able\u00a0to do immeasurably more than all we ask\u00a0or imagine, according to his power\u00a0that is at work within us,\u00a0to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.<\/em>
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What is this prayer all about?\u00a0 Paul prays that by God\u2019s power and God\u2019s Spirit we will come to know so much of God\u2019s fullness and God\u2019s love that our very lives will contribute to God\u2019s glory.<\/em>
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If you\u2019ve ever found yourself thinking, \u201cI\u2019d like to pray for So-and-So, but I really don\u2019t know what to say,\u201d you might try personalizing these extraordinary words.
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But our aim must be to make these thoughts our own, not just mindlessly repeat them.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0

The story is told of a man who purchased a talking parrot.\u00a0 Unfortunately, the parrot seemed capable of mastering only one phrase.\u00a0 Every time guests would come to the man\u2019s house, the parrot would squawk, \u201cI want to kiss!\u00a0 I want to kiss!\u201d\u00a0 Over time this became awkward.
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One day a second parrot owner proposed a solution.\u00a0 \u201cLet me bring my parrot over to your house.\u00a0 She\u2019s genuinely spiritual.\u00a0 Most of the time she folds her wings in a reverent way and says, \u2018I want to pray!\u00a0 I want to pray!\u2019\u00a0 I bet my bird can be a positive influence on your bird.\u201d\u00a0 The first man happily agreed.\u00a0
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The very next day the second fellow arrived with his praying parrot.\u00a0 The first owner\u2019s bird immediately began to squawk, \u201cI want to kiss!\u00a0 I want to kiss!\u201d \u2013 whereupon the second parrot vigorously flapped her wings and screeched, \u201cMy prayers are answered!\u00a0 My prayers are answered!\u201d
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Most of us, with a bit of practice, can figure out how to talk the talk of spirituality.\u00a0 We can fold our hands and say pious words.\u00a0 But nothing can hide the fact that underneath our appearances we may well be rooting for something else.
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Prayer, at its deepest, is profoundly simple.\u00a0 We seek to align our hearts with God\u2019s heart.\u00a0 Prayer is not this thing I do that makes something else happen.\u00a0 <\/em>It\u2019s not a matter of voicing the right words, but of allowing God\u2019s Spirit to \u201cstrengthen us with power\u201d in our inner worlds.\u00a0
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Pound for pound, there is more about power in the book of Ephesians than any other New Testament book.\u00a0
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Gaining and holding on to power has been one of humanity\u2019s timeless pursuits.\u00a0 Dictators want power.\u00a0 So do generals and bank presidents and athletes and marketers and three-year-olds and virtually every comic book superhero.\u00a0 But the power that is available from God isn\u2019t for the purpose of confronting other people or altering our circumstances.\u00a0\u00a0 Paul prays that we might be strengthened \u201cin our inner being\u201d (3:16) and \u201cin our hearts through faith\u201d (3:17).\u00a0
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God is incomprehensibly vast.\u00a0 He is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine.\u00a0 Our problem, as articulated by biblical scholar Klyne Snodgrass, is that we don\u2019t ask or trust or expect him to do very much.\u00a0
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Therefore we must start at the place where Paul starts.\u00a0 We must get down on our knees.\u00a0
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That\u2019s more than just an expression of reverence.\u00a0 It\u2019s an act of vulnerability.\u00a0 When I am on my knees, I cannot run away.\u00a0
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When I become smaller in God\u2019s presence, he becomes bigger.\u00a0
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And that is the best thing that can possibly happen to every one of us on this spring day.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to this reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here. Every day during this season of Lent we\u2019re looking at one of the \u201c3:16\u201d verses of the Bible, spotlighting some of the significant theological statements that happen to fall on the 16th verse of the third chapter of a number of Old and New Testament books.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cI pray that out of his… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2465,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[571],"class_list":["post-2464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-316-verses"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2464"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2464\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2466,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2464\/revisions\/2466"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}