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Tag: Ephesians

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Do you ever feel like God doesn’t answer your prayers? I do. Particularly lately, I feel like He is ignoring my requests for pain relief. Ephesians 3:20-21 tells us that He is able to do so much more than we could ask or imagine. So, if that’s the case, why doesn’t He heal me? Perhaps because He is doing something beyond my imagination. Perhaps He has a better plan in mind. I can’t conceive what that might be, but isn’t that what this verse is all about?

In Ephesians 3:14-19, Paul makes some pretty bold requests—essentially that we would have the power and knowledge of Christ within us, and in fact have Christ Himself within us. Yet, Paul believed not only that God was able to accomplish this, but that He was (and since it is in the present tense, still is) able far beyond Paul’s (or our) expectations. Even though Paul seems to be asking a lot, he is in fact not asking too much. We cannot ask too much of God, because whatever we think to ask is well within His power. That does not mean that we will always get things just the way we ask for them. God has purposes beyond what we could imagine as well, and we know that His purposes for us are good. (Romans 8:28, Matthew 7:11) God wants to give us good gifts, but He also wants us to be humble, and to bring Him the glory. He wants our requests to be made according to His will. (John 15:7, John 14:13-14)

The beginning of Ephesians 3:20 talks about the power that is working within us. If we allow Christ to work through us, and in us, we will be much more effective. God’s desire is to make us more like Jesus, and in order to accomplish this, we need to do things His way. I know that it isn’t easy to give up control, but if we give it to God, life can be so much better than we imagine. God’s grace and mercy and love and power will never run out. They are infinite, not limited by our finite minds. His goodness to us will not change; we just need to be willing to accept it, and to allow Him to have the praise and the glory. God sees the end from the beginning and we can trust that He has our best interests at heart.

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I believe that the grace of God is much more amazing than we as humans can comprehend, and yet it is available to each one of us. Ephesians 2:1-3 describes the dire situation that the human race was left in because of Adam’s sin. Then verse 4 starts with “But God”. It begins the explanation we find in Ephesians 2:4-7 of God’s mercy and grace. Mercy means that we are not given the punishment that we deserve. Grace means that we are given the salvation that we don’t deserve. Both are given to us because of Christ, a fact that is repeated three times in these four verses, and they are gifts that are available to anyone, even the thief who was minutes from death on the cross beside Jesus. Because of Christ we have been transformed from spiritual death to spiritual life. We have been raised up in Him, and when this life is over we will be with Him in the heavenly realms. Spiritually, we are already there. This was made possible only because He loved us enough to die as a sacrifice in our place. Can you even begin to imagine this?!

I am also encouraged by Ephesians 2:7 which tells us that the surpassing wealth of His grace will be demonstrated to us in the coming ages. It is only going to get better and better. We will continue to know God more and more, but what I find most uplifting is that we are not expected to know it all right now. God’s love and grace is beyond what we can fathom, but there is a lot that He has already made known to us as well. He has given us the gift of the scriptures, His Holy Word, so that we might learn more about Him and His great love at our own pace. No pressure. It’s a gift.

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Do you ever feel like God doesn’t answer your prayers?  I do.  Particularly lately, I feel like He is ignoring my requests for pain relief.  Ephesians 3:20-21 tells us that He is able to do so much more than we could ask or imagine.  So, if that’s the case, why doesn’t He heal me?  Perhaps because He is doing something beyond my imagination.  Perhaps He has a better plan in mind.  I can’t conceive what that might be, but isn’t that what this verse is all about?

In Ephesians 3:14-19, Paul makes some pretty bold requests—essentially that we would have the power and knowledge of Christ within us, and in fact have Christ Himself within us.  Yet, Paul believed not only that God was able to accomplish this, but that He was (and since it is in the present tense, still is) able far beyond Paul’s (or our) expectations.  Even though Paul seems to be asking a lot, he is in fact not asking too much.  We cannot ask too much of God, because whatever we think to ask is well within His power.  That does not mean that we will always get things just the way we ask for them.  God has purposes beyond what we could imagine as well, and we know that His purposes for us are good.  (Romans 8:28, Matthew 7:11)  God wants to give us good gifts, but He also wants us to be humble, and to bring Him the glory.  He wants our requests to be made according to His will.  (John 15:7, John 14:13-14)

The beginning of Ephesians 3:20 talks about the power that is working within us.  If we allow Christ to work through us, and in us, we will be much more effective.  God’s desire is to make us more like Jesus, and in order to accomplish this, we need to do things His way.  I know that it isn’t easy to give up control, but if we give it to God, life can be so much better than we imagine.  God’s grace and mercy and love and power will never run out.  They are infinite, not limited by our finite minds.  His goodness to us will not change; we just need to be willing to accept it, and to allow Him to have the praise and the glory.  God sees the end from the beginning and we can trust that He has our best interests at heart.