Prayer
for Fellow Believers
Lord, for my friends and family,
I pray you would grant them strength
To fathom the depth and height of your
love
To grasp its width and its length.
“…And I pray that you,
being rooted and established in love,
may have power,
together with all the saints,
to grasp how wide and long and
high and deep
is the love of Christ, and to know this love
that surpasses
knowledge –
that you may be filled to the measure
of all the fullness of God.”
Ephesians 3:17b-19 (NIV)
ĕxischuō – to have full strength,
i.e. be entirely competent: - be able.
plĕrŏō – to make replete, i.e.
(lit.) to cram (a net), level up (a hollow), or (fig.) to furnish (or imbue,
diffuse, influence), satisfy, execute (an office), finish ( a period or task),
verify (or coincide with a prediction), etc.: - accomplish, X after, (be)
complete, and, expire, fill (up), fulfill, (be, make) full (come), fully
preach, perfect, supply.
Once again
Paul knows how to pray for fellow believers. Notice he prayed that the
Ephesians would be given the strength and competence to understanding something
that is beyond human ability to grasp – the love of Christ. We can only come to
God’s grace when his Spirit calls us, and we are only able to understand the
depth of his love as he empowers us to do so. Then Paul prayed that they would
be crammed full of God.
When I was
teaching middle school, I often prayed that God would give my students the
ability to even begin understanding how much the Lord loved them. One day an illustration
popped into my brain (wonder where it came from), and I asked my students to
imagine themselves creating a Playdough™ world and people that would really
come to life. They would be like a god to those people. I wove the story of
their created world for awhile and then asked them to imagine that the people
ceased to believe they were real and taught their children that there were no
such things as kindly giants that created them. I described a rebellion in
Playdough™ world. Then I asked them if they would be willing to become a
Playdough™ person and die for their rebellious creatures. Suddenly the light
came on in a 6th grader’s head, and he said, “Miss Hale! God created
us from clay. We are the Playdough™
people, and Jesus did come into our
world to die for us!” The room was silent for a moment as this truth sank in. I
thought this would be the highlight of our week in Bible class.
However,
the next day we read the verses above. I asked the class if anyone could
explain what they meant. A student raised his hand and said, “Isn’t that what
God did for us yesterday? He put that story in your head to help us all
understand his love.” What a teachable moment supplied by the grace of God! I
know those students were being given a firm foundation of biblical truth, and I
now pray that they are continuing to be filled with all God’s Spirit has to
offer them.
Father, help me to pray powerfully for
fellow believers as Paul did. I pray the verses above for my family and friends
and myself right now. Help us to grasp
your love and be filled to the brim with your Spirit.
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