TODAY’S VERSE
Ephesians 3:14
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father. (ESV)
Though bowing one's knees in prayer was not uncommon in Jewish practice, standing was the most common posture. This suggests Paul is making a point with his posture. What he’s about to pray for is really important.
Here’s my question: What do you pray most fervently for?
What personal concerns do you bring most readily and passionately to the Father? Are they matters of worldly comfort or spiritual depth? When you pray for others, what do you ask for on their behalf? Are they temporary concerns or eternal?
We have a Father in Heaven who cares about the details of our lives, so we should come to Him with our daily and practical concerns — hence Jesus’ instructions to pray for daily bread. But may we never forget what is most important in life: knowing Christ’s love.
Have you ever bowed your knees (or laid flat on your face) desperately asking God to give you the strength to grasp His love for you more fully? Have you ever done so for the sake of someone else? What if there wasn’t a more important prayer you could pray today?
When talking about the power of knowing (or pondering) God, Charles Spurgeon once wrote, “Nothing will so enlarge the intellect, nothing so magnify the whole soul of man, as a devout, earnest, continued investigation of the great subject of the Deity. And, whilst humbling and expanding, this subject is eminently consolatory. Oh, there is, in contemplating Christ, a balm for every wound; in musing on the Father, there is a quietus for every grief; and in the influence of the Holy Ghost, there is a balsam for every sore.”
You may feel the great weight of your life or the burdens of others, but have you yet considered how small those things would feel if your view of God grew?
APPLICATION
Take however much time is necessary to get on your knees and pray Ephesians 3:14-21 for yourself or someone else. It’s written below with blanks for you to insert your name or someone else’s.
PRAYER
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant ________________ to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in ________________ heart through faith—that ___________________, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that ___________________ may be filled with all the fullness of God. Amen.