Slideshow image

Paul's prayer in Ephesians 3 is one of the most powerful passages in the New Testament. It is not a prayer asking God to fix circumstances or solve problems. It is a prayer asking that we would truly understand how deeply and completely God loves us, and that this understanding would change us from the inside out.

Why Did Paul Pray This Prayer?

To understand the prayer, you have to understand what came before it. Starting in Ephesians chapter one, Paul lays out everything God has already done for believers. God chose us before the foundation of the world. He bought us out of the slavery of sin. He washed us, adopted us into His family, seated us with Him in the heavenly places, and sealed us with the Holy Spirit.

Because of all of that, Paul says, I am going to pray for you. His prayer is that everything we know in our minds would actually be reflected in our lives.

How Should We Approach Prayer?

Does Your Body Position in Prayer Matter?

Paul opens by saying, "I bow my knees before the Father." The Bible shows us many physical postures for prayer. Solomon knelt. David sat. Many Jews stood and swayed. Jesus fell prostrate in the Garden of Gethsemane. Paul instructed Timothy that men should lift up holy hands in prayer. Hannah moved her lips without making a sound. Jesus lifted His eyes to heaven before raising Lazarus.

The point is not which position is correct. The real issue is the position of your heart. Bowing the knee of your heart before God means coming to Him with humility and awe, overwhelmed by what He has done, and asking Him to open your mind to the truth He wants to teach you.

When and Where Should You Pray?

Prayer does not require a specific location or time. Some of the most meaningful prayer happens early in the morning, on a walk, or during a commute. The Psalms are essentially a prayer book, covering every human emotion imaginable. Reading five Psalms a day will take you through the entire book in a month, and you will likely find yourself saying, "That is exactly how I feel."

The best practice is to pray before you read Scripture, asking the Holy Spirit to teach you, and then pray again afterward, asking Him to continue working in you as you meditate on what you read.

Who Is God as Our Father?

What Does It Mean That God Adopted Us?

Paul addresses his prayer to "the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name." For many people, the word "Father" carries painful baggage. It can be hard to picture God as a loving Father when earthly fathers have failed us.

But the picture Paul gives us is one of adoption. When you adopt a child, you know their story. You know the neglect, the pain, the rejection. And your heart moves with compassion to say, even though you are not biologically mine, I choose you. Everything this family has is now legally yours. I will protect you and nurture you.

That is exactly what God did for us. He saw us neglected, used, and overlooked, and He said, "I see something in you that others cannot see, and I am going to bring it out."

Think of Oliver Twist in Charles Dickens' novel. Oliver was a nameless, unwanted orphan, mistreated and exploited. The turning point came when Mr. Brownlow saw something in him that no one else had seen. He gave Oliver food, shelter, care, a name, and ultimately a family. Oliver went from neglected to nurtured, from the streets to sonship, from nameless to known. That is our story with God.

What Does Paul Actually Ask For in This Prayer?

Strength in the Inner Man

The first petition is found in Ephesians 3:16. Paul prays "that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man."

Notice the phrase "according to His riches." God does not give out of His riches like someone reluctantly parting with a portion of a limited supply. He gives according to His riches, which are infinite and inexhaustible. Whatever you need is a small thing to Him.

The strength He gives comes from the inside, not the outside. As Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 4:16, "We do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day." The body will decline. That is simply the reality of living in a physical world. But the inner man, who you truly are, is being renewed and strengthened by the Holy Spirit.

Our culture spends enormous energy on outward appearance. But the real investment is in the inner life, in becoming more like Christ, in letting God speak to and shape who we are on the inside.

Christ Dwelling Deeply in Our Hearts

The second petition is in Ephesians 3:17. Paul prays "that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love."

The Greek word for "dwell" here is a compound word. One part means "down deep" and the other means "to inhabit a house." Christ does not want to be a guest in our lives. He wants to own the house. Just as your home reflects who you are, the things you love, the memories you carry, Christ wants to inhabit us deeply so that we reflect Him.

Knowing the Love That Cannot Be Fully Known

The third and most striking petition is in Ephesians 3:18-19. Paul prays that we "may be able 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 you may be filled up to all the fullness of God."

He is praying that we would comprehend the incomprehensible. He wants us to know something that cannot be fully known. God's love is so vast, so deep, and so infinite that we will spend eternity exploring it and never exhaust it.

This is not a prayer for us to love Jesus more, though that is a worthy prayer. This is a prayer that we would truly grasp how much God loves us. Because when you genuinely believe that God loves you unconditionally, sacrificially, and without expecting anything in return, everything changes. You come to Him with confidence. You love other people differently. You bear with one another through difficulty. You trust Him even when you cannot see what He is doing.

What Happens When We Trust God's Love in the Middle of Pain?

One of the most powerful illustrations of this truth is the story of a young child named Shepherd who was going through a serious medical crisis. His parents watched anxiously through a baby monitor night after night. Then one morning, around 6 a.m., his mother looked at the camera and saw her son lying in bed in the dark, hands raised in the air, saying out loud to himself, "God has a good plan for me."

From that point forward, there was improvement.

That is what it looks like to praise God through pain. Not because everything makes sense, but because you trust that He loves you and that His plan is bigger than what you can currently see. When you stop demanding answers and start resting in His love, something shifts. You grow. You mature. You become rooted.

Life Application

This week, shift your prayer focus. Instead of only bringing God a list of requests, spend time asking Him to help you understand how much He loves you. Sit with Ephesians 3:14-21. Read it slowly. Let it sink in.

Ask yourself these questions:

- Do I actually believe that God loves me unconditionally, or do I secretly feel like I have to earn His attention?
- Am I investing more energy in my outward life than in my inner life with God?
- Is there an area of pain or uncertainty in my life right now where I need to choose to praise God and trust His plan, even when I cannot see it?
- What would change in how I treat others if I truly believed I was fully and unconditionally loved by God?

The challenge is simple but not easy. Choose one moment this week, in the middle of difficulty or uncertainty, to lift your hands and say, "God has a good plan for me." Let that be the beginning of going deeper in His love.