Immeasurably More

PRAYER OF CONSECRATION

Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. 

Jesus, I belong to you.

I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice.

Jesus, we belong to you. 

Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen. 

Ephesians 3:14–21

For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

CONSIDER THIS

Have you ever noticed how the punctuation marks in a sentence can radically change its meaning? 

Some instances can be quite funny, and you may have seen them. For example: a) See Joe run. b) See Joe? Run! Likewise, a well-chosen punctuation mark that comes at the end of a sentence can help us understand the intent of everything that precedes it.

I like to see verses 20–21, the “doxology” of Paul’s prayer, as one, sentence-long punctuation mark guiding how we are to pray the preceding verses. I know I’m stretching a metaphor, but it’s true—how Paul finishes his prayer impacts the meaning of everything that came before. Paul punctuates his prayer—with worship!

Our prayer lives thrive in an atmosphere of worship.

A doxology is a praise-filled acclamation, a declaration that all glory belongs to God. Paul wants to wrap up his prayer with unwavering conviction, proclaiming that the glorious God, who can do anything, will answer. 

Let’s explore Paul’s spiritual punctuation mark on his prayer:

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

What if we punctuated every one of our prayers like this? What inner trust in God we might build!

Making the prayer our own, in verse 20, we are asking God to bring us into communion with Jesus and an experience of his love—believing he is “able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine.” In other words, we know who we are talking to. We don’t pray to ourselves, or to one another (though I have heard this done a time or two). We pray to the Creator, the God of the universe, in Jesus’s name. With confidence.

Also in verse 20, we declare that God’s power is “at work within us.” This means that we know we are Spirit-filled and Spirit-empowered people. We’re not on our own. Jesus has made his home in us! There is no “maybe God will,” or “I hope God will” wishy-washy-ness in Paul’s prayer. Nor should there be in ours. 

And in verse 21 of Paul’s doxology, we come to one of the most important, two-word phrases in the New Testament. Paul will use this phrase over and over again in his writing about union with God and experiencing the fullness of love. It is part of his punctuation mark on this prayer.

It is the phrase, “in Christ.” 

More than one hundred times in his New Testament letters (estimates vary) we see Paul using the phrase “in Christ,” or some variation of it (e.g., “in Christ Jesus,” “in the Lord Jesus,” and others). “In Christ” is Paul’s way of talking about our union with, and participation in, the life of Jesus. Being “in Christ” is Paul’s way of talking about salvation and the teaching of Jesus in John 14, 15, and 17. While the word Christian appears only a handful of times in the New Testament, “in Christ” and its variations fill the pages of Paul’s letters.

Tomorrow, we will give time to this pivotal phrase we see in the Prayer for Union and Love, and in Paul’s New Testament letters. Let’s pray together that God would reveal the fullness of its meaning for us as followers of Jesus. Understanding its essential message has everything to do with us flourishing in faith over a lifetime.

THE PRAYER 

Lord Jesus, I am in you and you are in me. Teach me to pray with worship and abounding faith, as Paul did. I am ready to turn the “amens” in my prayers to “amens!” I believe; help me in my unbelief (Mark 9:24). And Lord, I want to understand what it means to be “in Christ.” Begin now to show me what this means as you live your life through me (Gal. 2:20). In Christ Jesus, I pray, amen.

THE QUESTIONS

What kinds of prayers are you praying these days? If you had to describe your prayers with a punctuation mark, how would you describe them (question mark, period, comma, exclamation mark)? What do you think it means to be “in Christ”?

For the Awakening,
Dan Wilt 

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