Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, for ever and ever. Amen.
Ephesians 3: 20-21 (RSV)
Paul finishes his prayer is Ephesians 3 by acknowledging God’s abundant power. This translates to His answering our prayers abundantly. This devotion looks at how we glorify Him now and will throughout eternity.
Nuggets
- God has abundant power, but we limit Him by asking based on our own understanding.
- Abundant fits in with “… the unsearchable riches of Christ” (Eph. 3: 8 RSV) and “… the immeasurable riches of his grace …” (Eph. 2: 7 RSV).
- God is working in us to make us more Christ-like.
- God is glorified in us.
Ephesians 3: 20-21 finish up the prayer that Paul started in verse 14. He covers a lot of ground in those six verses and adds more in these last two. Let’s take stock of what we have already:
- Paul reverently approaches God.
- He acknowledges that God is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
- We are made part of the Family when we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior.
- “The riches of his glory” are the blessings that we receive through Christ.
- God gives us strength.
- Jesus Christ dwells in our hearts through faith.
- The rooting and grounding in His love ends up producing love.
- We cannot comprehend God’s power.
- God will give us the power to understand what we need to understand to make the decision to believe in Him.
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Pray for the Family
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The Fullness of God’s Love,
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Those are some deep topics!
What Paul is doing here is breaking into praise because of the awesomeness of the God he has just described. It may have just hit Paul that God was going to do exactly what Paul asked — give the Ephesians (and us) the riches of His glory!
Abundant Power
“Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think” (Eph. 3: 20 RSV).
This is God that we are talking about. You know, the One Who created everything we see and don’t see. The One that raised Jesus (and others) from the dead. The One Who is going to end this heaven and earth and create new ones. He has abundant power.
Paul knew that God was going to answer his prayer abundantly. We can’t out-ask or out-give our loving Heavenly Father!
The problem we have is we ask based on our own understanding. We try to limit God because we only see things one way — our way. We don’t see that “… with men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Mt. 19: 26 NKJV). We see the answer only through our perception.
We shouldn’t be surprised at Paul’s use of the Word abundant. We’ve already talked about “… the unsearchable riches of Christ” (Eph. 3: 8 RSV) and “… the immeasurable riches of his grace …” (Eph. 2: 7 RSV). We should be used to going big.
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What Should We Do About a Career Change?,
What Are Heavenly Places?,
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What Is the Foundation of Salvation?,
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But let’s refocus here. “… by the power at work within us …” (Eph. 3: 20 RSV). When we think of work, we think of eight hours a day/five days a week/forty hours a week/fifty weeks a year [put in whatever your work schedule is]. Many times, we see work as unending.
God is working on us. Remember what we said in What Is the Foundation of Salvation?
God initially forgives us of our sins and restores our relationship with Him. He makes us a spiritual being.
Then comes the hard part. That salvation changes us, but we are still in this earthly body. We have a long way to go to learn about who God wants us to be.
We still have the capacity to sin. God doesn’t just throw a switch and we are a totally different person who no longer sins. We are still us. That makes us a work in progress as we try to change to be more like God wants us to be.
We will be sin-free only when we get to heaven. That is after we are changed (I Cor. 15: 52).
So, yes. God is working in us to make us more Christ-like.
Eternal Glory
“to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, for ever and ever. Amen” (Eph. 3: 21 RSV).
We’ve talked about glory before. Glory is the expression of the qualities of God resulting from the authority of God.
To read What Is the Foundation of Salvation?, click on the button below.
To read What Is the Foundation of Salvation?, click the button below.
But this is different. It says glory, but I think it means glorify. Glorify means to worship God through our praises because we recognize and accept His divinity. We acknowledge His power and majesty.
How is God going to be glorified? “… in the church and in Christ Jesus …” (Eph. 3: 21 RSV). We are the church.
So, how is God glorified in us?
- God is glorified when the church grows. Most of the time when we say this, we think numbers. Yes, God wants people to believe. He wants all people to (I Tim. 2: 4) but knows that isn’t going to happen. So, He wants many.
But God also wants us to grow spiritually. We do this by being true disciples. Remember, that means being students.
Discipleship graph
Seeking to Be a Disciple
Hearing His Word (Rom. 10: 17 NLT).
Reading His Word (Rev. 1: 3 ESV).
Praying to Him (Heb. 4: 16 ESV).
Studying His Word (Ac. 17: 11 NLT).
Meditating on His Word (Ps. 1: 1-2).
Memorizing His Word (Ps. 119: 11 NLT).
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- God is glorified when we live out our faith. When we follow the do’s and don’ts, we show how they are right and good for us.
- God is glorified when the family is at peace with itself.
- God is glorified when we serve in Jesus’ name. He is glorified when we point others to His Son so that they, too, may ask Him to be their Lord and Savior.
Now look at the last part. “… to all generations, for ever and ever. Amen” (Eph. 3: 21 RSV). We aren’t going to just glorify God once we are called home. We glorify Him now.
We aren’t going to just glorify God now. We are going to glorify Him forever and ever. Even when this heaven and earth passes away, we will glorify Him. Without end. Through eternity.
But let’s get this straight. God really doesn’t need us to praise Him. He is still going to be Sovereign God even if we don’t. We don’t add anything to Him (and we don’t take away anything if we don’t Praise Him).
We gain by praising God. When we praise God, we put Him on His throne. That takes the focus off of us. That makes us want to learn more about Him. In turn, God blesses us more as we grow in knowledge and faith (II Pet. 3: 8).
Making the Connections
Too many times, I am afraid — when we do get around to praying — we don’t put the focus on God. We, at best, breeze through the Acknowledgment, Confession, and Thanksgiving part. At worst, we skip those all together. Either way, we land on the Supplication part and roost.
How Do We Apply This?
Do you have a prayer journal? I have one that I use when my Ladies and I voice our praises and prayer requests during class. I will go back through occasionally and indicate which prayers have been answered.
On my actual prayer list, I make sure it always starts out with Acknowledgment, Confession, and Thanksgiving. Then I list my son and my sister, the person I am praying for that month, my focus for the day, my secret pal, and my Ladies. Then I get to the Supplications.
I find the structure works better for me. But I also have to be carefully that it doesn’t just become a checkoff list. I want to make sure that I am having a sincere conversation with my Father.
Our awesome, powerful Heavenly Father deserves to be praised. Remember, we are practicing now for praising Him throughput eternity.
Gracious Father God. We praise You for Your awesome power and glory. We are amazed that You are even mindful of us. Lord, we claim the blessings that You have for us today. Help us to pray to You more. This will help us know You better and better discern Your plan for our lives. Lord, we can’t wait to praise You through eternity. Amen.
What do you think?
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