Encouragement

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PAUL’S PRAYER FOR SPIRITUAL EMPOWERING
When I think of the wisdom and scope of God’s plan, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will give you mighty inner strength through his Holy Spirit. And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it. 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. Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

Now glory be to God! By his mighty power at work within us, he is able to accomplish infinitely more than we could ever dare to ask or hope. May he be given glory in the church and in Christ Jesus forever and ever through endless ages. Amen. Ephesians 3:14-21 NLT (1997)

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
For some time, I have made it a practice to reword the prayers of Paul included in his letters. Changing the pronouns to refer to myself (i.e., “at home in my heart as I trust in him”). I was delighted to find a book about the prayers of Paul that contained all of them already reworded for my use and for use in praying for someone specific.

No, these are not “vain repetitions.” I do not pray them as “rote recitations” but as heartfelt, mind-involved prayers of my own. This particular prayer is for the church to know the full measure of a personal relationship with Christ that would reveal His love and power and bring about the fullness of Christ in their lives. That is what I pray for myself.

But if, as Paul writes, the love of Christ “is so great you will never fully understand it”, how do we internalize this prayer as we pray it in order to maximize our concept of the width, length, height, and depth of God’s love?

First of all, think of an iceberg. As you probably know, the portion of the iceberg above water – the part we see is only a small part of the total. Most of the iceberg lies beneath the surface of the water.

Think of how much we know of God’s love as represented by the portion of the iceberg that is above the water line. Then, think of the part that lies beneath the surface down into the depths of the ocean. It’s a simple picture, but don’t discount it.

Another thing I have found that works for me is a song by Tommy Walker titled “Thank You For Loving Me.” I’m including below the words to the song. Read the lyrics and meditate on them. This letter, along with the audio of the song and a video taken from “The Passion of the Christ” is available here: http://www.everydaychristianity.com/letters-from-bill/ so you can listen as you read.

If you can, close your eyes and sing to our Heavenly Father. Let Him love on you for awhile. Then thank Him, praise Him, and worship Him. Experience how wide, how long, how high and how deep is the Lord’s love for you.

Then, reword Paul’s prayer for yourself and pray it to the God whom you now know loves you even more than you can imagine.

Love,
Brother Bill

Thank You For Loving Me
Written by Tommy Walker © 2003 We Mobile Music (Admin. by Integrity Music, Inc.)

What love the Father has lavished on us
That we should be called His sons and daughters
Precious in His sight
Greater love this world had never seen
When He hung on that tree
O why would He do such a thing
For dirty sinners like you and me?

O God thank You for loving me
When on the cross You made history
Lord You died for me
Forever my praise will go to Thee
O God thank You for choosing me
To be Your child and bear Your name
O Jesus I will never cease to sing Your praise

Your love is patient and humble and kind
It's greater than all my sin
It always protects and trusts and hopes
And will have no end
It's Your love that lifted me up from the depths
Set my feet on a solid rock
With a firm place to stand
Lord I always will trust in Your loving hand

O God thank You for loving me
When on the cross You made history
Lord You died for me
Forever my praise will go to Thee
O God thank You for choosing me
To be Your child and bear Your name
O Jesus I will never cease to sing Your praise

How wide how long
How high how deep
How endless is Your love for me

How wide how long
How high how deep
How endless is Your love for me

O God thank You for loving me
When on the cross You made history
Lord You died for me
Forever my praise will go to Thee
O God thank You for choosing me
To be Your child and bear Your name
O Jesus I will never cease to sing Your praise
Thank You for loving me

Brother Bill (Bill Walker) is the webmaster of http://www.everydaychristianity.com. You may use this article freely as long as this credit remains with the article.

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