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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 (Ephesians 3:16-17).

The letter to the Ephesians is prayer. Paul begins with prayer, ends by calling the church to join him in prayer and here in the middle, prays. We talk much about prayer. Probably, we should do less of that and more of it, that is, praying. Like many of us were taught, but don\u2019t practice much, at least not publicly, we find Paul on his knees. It\u2019s a posture of humility, recognizing that God has what we need, and that God is the primary actor in the Christian life, and we are not. Not that its difficult to get things from God, but that Jesus said, \u201cask and you will receive.\u201d So, Paul is asking.

But what is he asking? What does he want? Well, it\u2019s the end, the doxology that we have been offering at the end of these devotions that tells us what Paul desires, \u201cto [God] be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus\u201d always. Years ago, a book called, Your God is too Small, created quite a buzz in the church. According to Amazon, there are several books with that title. I suspect that the size of our prayers corresponds with the size of our god.

The God Paul writes about really has no limits. That is what he has been writing about. He began with all those explosive verbs describing God\u2019s actions, summarized first with this phrase, \u201cto bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ\u201d (1:10). Later, he expands with this, \u201cAnd God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way\u201d (1:22-23).

After reflecting on our spiritual deadness, he trumpets God\u2019s grace, \u201cAnd God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus\u201d (2:6). God was not content with just making us alive again. There is much more in store for us. \u201cAnd in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit\u201d (2:22).

We need to read and reread these opening chapters so that we can understand the magnitude of Paul\u2019s prayers. His is no small God. He prays that this powerful, eternal God, out of all his glorious resources, will through the self-same Spirit by which he raised Christ from the dead, that this God will strengthen us in our inner beings.

His prayer is that God will be gloried in the church and in Christ Jesus forever. These are not two separate things. No, Christ Jesus and the church are intimated tied together. He is the head; the church is the body. They can no longer be seen as separate. For God to be gloried, Christ needs to dwell in us through faith so that we are saturated, filled up and overflowing with the gracious life of Christ.

Jesus said, \u201cIt is from within, out of a person\u2019s heart, that evil thoughts come\u2014sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly\u201d (Mark 7:21). But Paul understands that this is the old heart. God promised new hearts to his people. \u201cI will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws\u201d (Ezekiel 36:26-27).

Again, notice who is doing all the work. God is. Paul was an Old Testament scholar. He understood that only the God who was powerful enough to create in the beginning, could do this new thing in Christ. Paul prays what God is doing, making people who are dead alive. Cleaning us up happens by degrees. Getting filled up with Christ happens bit by bit.

So, let\u2019s join Paul, on his knees, recognizing that we cannot do this thing, not for ourselves, nor for others; let us pray that God will dwell in our inner beings, so that we may live for his glory.

\xa0Now 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. (Ephesians 3:20-21).