Inclusive, Yet Exclusive.

I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. – John 17:9-10 ESV John 17:1-26

Jesus made a very interesting, yet non-debatable point in this section of His prayer. He had been referencing “the people whom you gave me out of the world” (John 17:6 ESV). He made it clear that it was for these individuals for whom He was praying. “I am praying for them … those whom you have given me, for they are yours.” Jesus clearly had in mind His disciples – all those who had believed in Him, including Mary Magdalene and the other women who had become part of his extended earthly “family.” Anyone who had placed their faith in Jesus and believed Him to be “the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16 ESV), had become part of the exclusive group for which Jesus was praying. He distinctly sets them apart, saying, “I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me.” Jesus echoed His belief that His followers were given to Him by God the Father. These men and women, from all walks of life, with their varying backgrounds, diverse economic situations, and varied sin stories, had been moved by God to step out in faith and follow His Son. And as far as Jesus was concerned, they belonged to the Father. But as the Son of God, He shared in that unique and exclusive relationship with the Father and His children. When God chooses to adopt someone into His family, they become His child and heir, and joint heirs with Christ. They get included into an exclusive family that enjoys unique benefits and privileges. This inclusion should never be taken lightly or for granted. It is not based on anyone's merit and can never be earned or deserved in any way. “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9 ESV). Salvation is a gift of God, made available through the death of His own Son. There were going to be others who believed in Jesus and who would be included into this exclusive, yet growing family of God. A little later on in this same prayer, Jesus will tell the Father, “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word” (John 17:20 ESV). After His death and resurrection, and just prior to His ascension back into heaven, Jesus would tell His disciples, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matthew 29:29-20 ESV). God continues to call individuals from all over the world to Himself. Millions upon millions of people have been included into the family of God by placing their faith in the Son of God as their Savior. Jesus had told His disciples, “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself” (John 12:32 ESV). His death by crucifixion, along with His miraculous resurrection, continue to draw people back to God. It is all the work of God. Paul reminds us, “All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.  Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.  For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:18-21 ESV).

Christ died for all. His death was sufficient to pay for the sins of all mankind. But not all have have believed. There were many in Jesus’ day who rejected His message and refused to accept Him as their Messiah and Savior. They remained dead in their trespasses and sins. At the beginning of his gospel, John writes, “The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:9-13 ESV). The light, Jesus, was made visible to all, but not all received Him as the light. They preferred to go on living in darkness. Not all will be saved. The faith family of God, is inclusive to any and all, regardless of the color of their skin, the severity of their sin, their social and economic status, or intellectual prowess. But it is also exclusive. Jesus had made it clear. “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6 ESV). There is no other way. You can't get to God through any other means. That exclusivity means that not all will be included in the family of God. Not all will accept Jesus as the way, the truth and the life. But for those of us who have placed our faith in Christ and been reconciled to or made right with God, we should rejoice and realize that our status as God's children is due to His grace, not our merit. The very fact that we belong to God brings glory to Jesus because He is the one who made it possible. Without Him, we would be lost.

Consider the Source.

Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. – John 17:7-8 ESV John 17:1-26

In His prayer, Jesus claimed that His disciples had come to know and understand that everything He had – His power, miracles, position, words, insights, mission, and message – were from God. Jesus had spent three years of His life giving them the message He had received from God. It was a message concerning repentance. God was calling them to turn, not only from sin, but from their old thinking regarding God and how to be made right with Him. No longer would strict adherence to the law be the way in which men attempted to earn favor with God. Animal sacrifices, always an incomplete and temporary solution to man's sin problem, would no longer be the preferred method for finding forgiveness of sins. God had sent His Son to be the permanent, once-for-all remedy for the death sentence that hung over mankind as a result of the fall. Jesus came preaching, “Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near” (Matthew 4:17 NLT). “Later on, after John was arrested, Jesus went into Galilee, where he preached God’s Good News. ‘The time promised by God has come at last!’ he announced. ‘The Kingdom of God is near! Repent of your sins and believe the Good News!’” (Mark 1:14-15 NLT). Jesus came bringing a new message of hope and restoration. “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him” (John 3:16-17 NLT). Rather than salvation based on outward performance and an unachievable adherence to a set of moral and ethical standards, Jesus came offering salvation by faith alone in Him alone. He taught that there was only way in which might be made right with God and it was Him. “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me” (John 14:6 NLT). 

And Jesus said that His disciples had received these words and come to believe that He had been sent by God. He was, as Peter confessed, “the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16 ESV). He was the Son of God just as the voice of God had said at both His baptism and His transfiguration. Jesus was not just a man, a prophet, rabbi, teacher, or miracle worker. He wasn't just a good man, He was the God-man. He was God in human flesh, God incarnate. He was Immanuel, God with us. He was divine and divinely sent to bring the salvation of God to a lost and dying world. He was the fulfillment of the promises of God made hundreds of years earlier by the prophets of God. He was the long-awaited-for Messiah. He was the promised descendant of David who would sit on his throne in Jerusalem and whose kingdom would have no end. Jesus was sent by God to pay for the sins of the world. He took on human flesh, lived a sinless life and died a sacrificial death on behalf of mankind, in order to satisfy the just demands of a holy and righteous God. The wages of sin is death. Rebellion against God results in a death sentence. But God provided His own Son as the substitute for every person who has ever lived. His death, as the sacrificial Passover Lamb, propitiated or satisfied the wrath of God. His shed blood was necessary, because God had said, “for the life of the body is in its blood. I have given you the blood on the altar to purify you, making you right with the LORD. It is the blood, given in exchange for a life, that makes purification possible” (Leviticus 17:11 NLT). The writer of Hebrews tells us, “according to the law of Moses, nearly everything was purified with blood. For without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness” (Hebrews 9:22 NLT). God sent His Son to die. He had to be the sinless, spotless sacrifice for the sins of mankind. And the disciples, when they heard the words of God spoken by the Son of God, received and believed them. 

As implausible as it all sounded, they believed. As radically different and paradigm shifting as the message of Jesus was to their Jewish sensibilities, they believed. There was much that the disciples did not understand. They didn't always comprehend everything that Jesus said. They didn't always like what they heard coming out of His mouth, especially His admission that He was going to have to go to Jerusalem and die. But they believed that He had come from God. They believed Him to be the Messiah, the Son of God. Jesus had made God known and knowable to man. “No one has ever seen God. But the unique One, who is himself God, is near to the Father's heart. He has revealed God to us” (John 1:18 NLT). Jesus pointed men to God. He was the very manifestation of God in human flesh. “So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father's one and only Son” (John 1:14 NLT). And the disciples believed. Belief in the words of God concerning His Son are still the basis for salvation today. “The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him” (John 3:35-36 ESV). We must consider the source – Jesus Christ has been sent by God to be the means by which men might be made right with God. He was the God-provided sin substitute and spotless sacrifice who made our reconciliation to God possible. “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9 ESV).

Keeping God's Word.

I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. – John 17:6 ESV

John 17:1-26

At this point in His prayer, Jesus switched the emphasis from Himself to His disciples. In fact, this section is the longest of His entire prayer and focuses solely on the future well-being of His disciples. But before He lifts up the disciples, He acknowledges that He has manifested God's name to all those He had given Him out of the world. Jesus had lived His life in such a way that He revealed that nature and character of God. His very existence made the true nature of God recognizable and knowable to men. Paul described Jesus as “the image of God” (2 Corinthians 4:4 ESV). John wrote, “No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known” John 1:18 ESV). Again, Paul emphasized that Jesus was “the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15 ESV). When Jesus stated that He had manifested the name of God, He was saying that He had made the very essence of God known to man. Through Jesus they had come to know who God really was. After His resurrection and just before His ascension back into heaven, Jesus told His disciples, ““I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him” (John 14:6-7 ESV). Jesus had made God known. But the exact nature of God is only knowable to those whom God has chosen to reveal Himself. Jesus believed that His Father had given Him all those who chose to believe in Him. Earlier in His ministry Jesus had said, “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out” (John 6:37 ESV). This is one of those tension-filled concepts in Scripture with which many wrestle and struggle. It involves God's sovereignty and man's free will. Did God choose us or did we choose God? Jesus clearly viewed those for whom He prayed as having been given to Him by God, not as those who had chosen to follow Him. At the end of the day, Jesus believed in and counted on the sovereign will of His Father. Yes, the disciples had each chosen to follow Jesus. They had left everything else behind and willingly walked after Jesus. But Jesus seemed to believe that even their decision to do so was the will of God. He had prayed throughout the night before He chose the twelve who would be His disciples. God had clearly directed His choice of the original twelve. Jesus saw everything as having been directed by and controlled by God. His sovereignty even extended to choice of all who would eventually believe in Jesus as their Savior. Later on in this same prayer, Jesus says, “I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours” (John 17:9 ESV). This belief is why Jesus could be so confident when He thought about the future of His followers. They were in the hands of God. They belonged to Him. Interestingly enough, Jesus said, “Yours they were, and you gave them to me” (John 17:6 ESV).

Then Jesus emphasized that those whom God had given Him had kept the word of God. They had believed on Jesus as the Son of God. At the baptism of Jesus by John, God had spoken these words: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (John 3:17 ESV). At the transfiguration of Jesus, three of the disciples had heard God say, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him” (John 17:5 ESV). God had made it clear that Jesus was His Son. He was the Messiah, the Savior of the world. He was not just another man, a prophet, rabbi, or miracle worker. He was the Son of God. And those who had accepted that fact, had “kept the word of God.” They had listened to Jesus. They had believed the words of Jesus. They had accepted the fact that Jesus was the way, the truth, and the life and the only way to the Father. When Jesus had asked the disciples who they believed Jesus to be, Peter had spoken up and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16 ESV). Then Jesus had responded, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 17:17 ESV). In other words, Peter did not come to his realization on His own. God had revealed it to him. God had made it possible for Peter to recognize and comprehend the divine nature of Jesus. And that same testimony – that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God – would be the basis for every other person to come to be reconciled or made right with God.

The disciples did not live completely obedient lives. Neither will we. But we can keep God's Word, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, by continuing to rely on Him as our Savior and sin substitute. We can continually rest in Him as the way, the truth and the life. We can persistently believe that Jesus is the Son of god and the Savior of the world.

Mission Accomplished.

I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. – John 17:4-5 ESV

John 17:1-26

Jesus had done what He had come to do. Interestingly enough, this prayer was prayed before His death, burial and resurrection, yet from Jesus' perspective, even that part of His mission was as good as done. He was committed to complete the full assignment given to Him by God the Father. Jesus had come to earth and taken on human flesh. He had lived a sinless life. He had spread the news of the coming Kingdom of God and preached a message of repentance, calling people to return to God. He had performed miracles, healed the sick, ministered to the poor and spiritually needy. He had exposed the hypocrisy of the religious elite and trained the men who would carry forward the message of the gospel when He was gone. And all that Jesus had done brought glory to His Father in heaven. Why? Because He had been obedient to all that He had been asked to do. The apostle Paul encourages us, “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:5-8 ESV). Jesus lived His entire life on earth in order to glorify God the Father. Jesus was humble and not in it for His own glory. He suffered rejection, ridicule, false accusations, betrayal, torture, and eventually death – all in order to glorify God. His miracles were meant to glorify God. His words, whether encouraging the downtrodden or admonishing the arrogant, were said in such a way that they always brought glory to God. Paul challenges us to live the same way: “…whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31 ESV). Peter echoes those same sentiments. “Do you have the gift of speaking? Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you. Do you have the gift of helping others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ. All glory and power to him forever and ever! Amen” (1 Peter 4:11 NLT). Jesus lived fully obedient to and dependent upon His Father in heaven. He did nothing out of selfishness or with a hint of self-preservation. He knew His destiny included death, but was willing to go through with it because of His love for the Father. He trusted in His heavenly Father and was fully assured that His death would be acceptable to God as payment for the sins of mankind. He was also confident that God would glorify Him by raising Him back to life and returning Him to His rightful place. Paul tells us, “Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:9-11 ESV). Jesus' entire life brought God glory, from the moment of His miraculous conception by the Spirit of God in the womb of Mary to His death on the cross. He lived to bring glory to God. He died so that men might be restored to a right relationship with God. For Jesus, the glory of the Father was more important than anything else. It was His life's mission. When sinful men and women place their faith in Jesus as their sin substitute, it brings glory to God, because salvation was God's idea. He sent His Son to die for the sins of man. He provided a way in which men might be reconciled or made right by Him. And the only way it could be accomplished was through the incarnation and crucifixion of His own Son. “But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation” (Romans 5:8-9 NLT). Paul goes on to remind us, “So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God” (Romans 5:11 NLT). All to the glory of God. Jesus came, but God is the one who sent Him. Jesus obeyed, but God is the one whose plan He obeyed. Jesus died, but God is the one who raised Him back to life. So God gets the glory.

Do I live my life to the glory of God? Is my primary focus in life to bring Him glory through my willful obedience and humble submission to His will for my life? Like Jesus, my entire life should be lived to the glory of God. When I listen to His Spirit's prompting and obey, it brings Him glory. When I humbly submit to His will, even when I don't understand or like it, I bring Him glory. When I point people to Him and share His love with them, I bring Him glory. When I admit my weakness and allow Him to display His power through me, I bring Him glory. When I trust in the promise that He will some day glorify me and live with a sense of peace and joy, I bring Him glory. To God be the glory, great things He has done.

Knowing God.

And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. – John 17:3 ESV

In what has come to be known as His high priestly prayer, Jesus gives us a wonderful definition of what it means to have eternal life. For far too many, eternal life is little more than heavenly "fire insurance," a kind of get-out-of-jail-free card that will allow them to escape the penalty and pain of hell. Eternal life gets them a guaranteed place in heaven. In other words, it becomes all about a future destination. But Jesus emphasized that it is really all about a relationship that begins here on earth and culminates in heaven. The whole point of heaven is the unbroken relationship with God it will provide – free from the effects of sin. The whole point of hell is that it will be an eternal existence completely separated from any kind of access to or relationship with God. The point is far less about the physical pain and suffering of hell than it is about the emotional and spiritual suffering that will be the result of an eternal existence completely severed from any hope of a relationship with God. There will be no more common grace extended by God to any and all. No joy, no laughter, no gentle rains, calming breezes, no moments of rest or the simple pleasures of a good meal. In this life, it is God who graciously allows all to experience the joys of his creation. “For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike” (Matthew 5:45 NLT). In hell, wherever it will be, those things will no longer be available because God's presence will be inaccessible and unavailable.

But in His prayer, Jesus did not focus on heaven, even though He had already promised His disciples that He would return for them and take them to be with Him there. “In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also” (John 14:2-3 ESV). His prayer equates eternal life, not with heaven, but with a relationship with God the Father and with Himself as the Son of God. Eternal life is about a restored relationship with God. It begins at salvation and finds its full fruition at the point of our glorification when we see Jesus face to face. The moment anyone, by faith, acknowledges Jesus as their sin substitute and the sole source of their salvation, they are reconciled or made right with God. They go from being His enemies to His adopted child and heir. “You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault” (Colossians 1:21-22 NLT). “For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son” (Romans 5:10 NLT). The salvation provided by God through Jesus is not about a destination, but a relationship. It is about God reconciling lost and hopeless men and women to a right relationship with Himself. It is about God doing for us what we could never have done on our own. We could never have earned our way back into God's good graces. “God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it” (Ephesians 2:8-9 NLT).

Eternal life is about knowing God. It is about having a right relationship with Him and Jesus is the one who makes it possible. But being made right with God, while wonderful, loses its significance if we do not find ourselves desiring to grow in our knowledge of the one who made our salvation possible. In Paul's prayer for the believers in Colossae, he asked “God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding. Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better” (Colossians 1:9-10 NLT). A growing knowledge of God – that is the essence of eternal life. Warren Wiersbe has described this growing intimacy and awareness of God in this way. “To know God personally is salvation. To know Him increasingly is sanctification. To know him perfectly is glorification.” We are to experience a growing and ever-expanding understanding of God as we live submitted to His Spirit, read about Him in His Word, and grow increasingly more committed to His will for our lives and this world. Coming to know Christ was intended to allow us to get to know God – intimately, personally and progressively more and more. That is the essence of what it means to have eternal life. It is less about knowing where you are going when you die than it is about knowing God – the one with whom you will spend eternity after you die.

The High Priestly Prayer.

When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.” – John 17:1-2 ESV

John 17:1-26

Jesus had just told His disciples that He would be leaving. He had warned them that the hour was coming when they would desert him and scatter in fear. He was on the eve of his betrayal and arrest. Jesus knew that the fate for which He had come was near. And in spite of all this, Jesus was able to tell His disciples, “Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me. I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:32-33 ESV). And after He had spoken these words, He prayed. Jesus was not alone. Even though His most faithful followers would end up denying Him and running in fear at His arrest, His Father would be with Him. And it was to His Father that He turned. The prayer that He prayed is both amazing and inspiring at the same time. It provides us with a glimpse into Jesus' relationship with His Father and reveals the scope of the divine plan for man's redemption.

Jesus was well aware of His circumstances. He was not surprised or caught off guard. It was for this very moment that He had come to earth. His incarnation, God becoming man, was in order that He might live a sinless life and die a sinner's death on man's behalf. And that hour had come. But Jesus' response to His impending death was far from fatalistic. His was not a helpless resignation to an event over which He had no control. No, Jesus was facing His circumstances willingly and with a deep desire to see His Father glorified. He prayed, “glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you.” Jesus knew that God was going to glorify Him through His own death, burial, resurrection and ascension. Long after the events surrounding Jesus' death and ascension, Paul wrote, “Christ Jesus,  who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,  but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:5-11 ESV). Jesus knew He was going to die, but He also knew that His Father was going to bring Him back to life. Not only that, He knew that He would be restored to His rightful position at the right hand of God. He would be glorified and His Father would be glorified. But at the moment Jesus prayed this prayer, it was all a matter of trust on His part. He would still have to go through a humiliating arrest, a series of sham trials, all kinds of verbal and physical abuse, and the excruciating pain of a Roman crucifixion. But Jesus knew His Father well. He was intimately familiar with His Father's will and His own role in it. So He rested in the fact that His suffering was an essential part in the redemptive plan of God.

The purpose of Jesus' coming was to provide eternal life to man. God had given Him authority to do so. After His ascension, Jesus would tell His disciples, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matthew 28:18 ESV). Then He would proceed to commission them to go and make disciples of all nations. Jesus had authority over all flesh. He had both the power to save and to judge, to forgive and condemn. His death, burial and resurrection would become the final determiner regarding the eternal fate of all mankind. “There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12 NLT).

Jesus faced His fate with faith, knowing full well that His Father loved Him and that His Father's will for Him was best. Even in His prayer in the garden, just moments before His betrayal and arrest, Jesus would pray, “not my will, but yours, be done” (Luke 22:42 ESV). His human nature did was what was normal and natural – it desired another way. It resisted the idea of the gruesome death ahead. Which is why Jesus prayed, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me” (Luke 22:42 ESV). In His humanity, He preferred a different solution. But in His deity, He knew that His Father's will was best – not only for Him, but for all mankind. What a sobering reminder of our need to trust our heavenly Father. So often, we find ourselves facing difficult circumstances and we pray that God would remove us from it, but we fail to trust His will and rest in the reality that He is ultimately in control and has our good and His glory in mind at all times. We can trust Him. Because Jesus trusted God, we now have a relationship with the Father and the promise of eternal life. So no matter what we might face in this life, we can know that our future glorification is assured, and rest in that unfailing promise from God.

One Voice.

May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. – Romans 15:5-6 ESV

Why can't we all just get along? Disunity and disagreement plagues the church today. The body of Christ is marred by a lack of harmony and portrays to the world a less-than-flattering image of what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. And yet, our unity was of paramount importance to Paul. It was even a high priority for Jesus, because it was the primary focus of His prayer in the garden on the night He was betrayed. He pleaded with the Father, “that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (John 17:21 ESV). It was to be the supernatural unity of the followers of Jesus that would give living proof of His claim to be the Savior of the world. Our Spirit-empowered ability to get along would give evidence to a lost world that Jesus' death was far more than just martyrdom. He died so that we might have new life. He gave His life so that we might receive a new capacity to love one another – in spite of all our differences and diversities. The early church was made up of all kinds of people from all walks of life. There were Jews, Gentiles, pagans, the poor, the wealthy, slaves, masters, the educated and uneducated, dignitaries, tax collectors, former prostitutes, commoners and distinguished civic leaders. And the very fact that they could all come together and exist in harmony and unity was the work of God. But Paul knew that this unity would be under constant attack by the enemy. Satan's strategy will always be to destroy the body of Christ from within. He will do everything in his power to create disunity and sow discord among the people of God. He will encourage selfishness and self-centeredness. He will subtly promote a what's-in-it-for-me mentality that always proves to be divisive and destructive.

But Luke describes what the early days of the church were like. “And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common.  And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved” (Acts 2:42-47 ESV). There was a supernatural sense of unity. They were drawn together for a common cause and shared a common faith in Jesus Christ. Each had come as a sinner, unable to redeem himself, but had received forgiveness from God as a result of their faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior. No one, despite the severity of their sin or the dignity of their social position, was any different than anyone else. They were all sinners saved by grace. And years later, Paul prayed that the believers in Rome would have that same sense of unity and harmony among themselves. But he knew that God would have to provide it. God would have to grant them the ability to live in unity. Their natural tendency would be toward selfishness. But God is glorified best when we are unified most. When we “with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Our prayer should be for unity. We should desire to live in harmony with one another – God-ordained, Spirit-empowered harmony. Jesus commanded us to love one another, in the same way that He loved us – sacrificially and selflessly. Paul tells us, “Don't be selfish; don't try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves” (Philippians 2:3 NLT). Later in his letter to the Romans, he wrote, “Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other” (Romans 12:10 NLT). Peter gave a similar word of encouragement. “Finally, all of you should be of one mind. Sympathize with each other. Love each other as brothers and sisters. Be tenderhearted, and keep a humble attitude” (1 Peter 3:8 NLT). Our unity is paramount to our testimony. Getting along is essential if we want to get the attention of the world with the good news of Jesus Christ. Because what good is our testimony of Christ's life-transforming power if we can't even get along with those who we call our brothers and sisters in Christ. So unity should be our constant prayer. It is God who has made us one through faith in His Son. It is God who must keep us one as we struggle to live godly lives in the midst of a godless generation. We must make unity among the people of God one of our highest priorities and a constant part of our daily prayers.

Visible Faith.

I always thank my God as I remember you in my prayers, because I hear of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints. I pray that the faith you share with us may deepen your understanding of every blessing that belongs to you in Christ.  – Philemon 1:4-6 NET

They say faith is hard to see, but Paul would disagree. Faith has fruit. Our belief in Jesus Christ should have a direct impact on the way we live our lives and should be visible to all those around us. Paul had heard of Philemon's faith. Others had been able to see it and talk about it. They had been first-hand recipients of Philemon's love – a direct byproduct of his faith in Christ. One of Paul's other prayers, found in his letter to the Philippians, read, “May you always be filled with the fruit of your salvation--the righteous character produced in your life by Jesus Christ--for this will bring much glory and praise to God” (Philippians 1:11 NLT). As we grow in our faith, the fruit of that faith increases, impacting those around us. Which is why Paul prayed that Philemon's faith would deepen his understanding of every blessing that belongs to him in Christ. Our faith in Christ should result in a growing awareness of the incredible blessings we have received from God as a result of our relationship with His Son. We enjoy His unmerited grace, mercy, forgiveness,and love. We have the ongoing assurance of His abiding presence. Nothing we do can ever alter our relationship as His child. He never falls out of love with His children. As the incredible nature of the our relationship with God sets in, our faith should increase, along with our love for those around us. When we realize just how much we have received from God, we should desire to share that same love, grace and mercy with others. The apostle John writes, “No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us” (1 John 4:12 NLT). God's love for us was never meant to terminate on us. His love should flow through us to others, in order that they might feel the love of God in a tangible way.

As we grow in our understanding of the blessings of God available to us through Christ, we are able to turn from our normal and natural inward fixation to a Spirit-motivated love for others. We begin to live out what Paul described: “Don't be selfish; don't try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves” (Philippians 2:3 NLT). We become known for our love for others. Our faith in Christ takes on a visible nature that others can see, feel and experience. We become less self-centered and more other-focused. Our selfishness slowly gets replaced with a spirit of selflessness and sacrifice. Our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ should be accompanied by a love for others. That is the fruit of righteousness. Paul knew that as Philemon grew in his understanding of all that he had received in Christ, he would increase in his desire to love others. So that was the heart of Paul's prayer for Philemon. And we should pray that same prayer for our brothers and sisters in Christ today. Our love for one another and our love for the lost are tangible expressions of God's redemptive, restorative love for us. We are to love as we have been loved. We are to show grace as we have received grace. We are to extend mercy as we have had mercy extended to us. We are God's ambassadors, His representatives on this earth. “For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, ‘Come back to God!’’ (2 Corinthians 5:19-20 NLT). But the most effective way to get people to return to God is to allow them to experience the love of God through us. They can't see God, but they can feel His love as we love them as He has loved us. Oh, that our faith would grow and that our awareness of God's great love for us would continue to increase. Then that love would find expression in our selfless, sacrificial love for others. And the world would take notice.

Filled With Hope.

I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. – Romans 15:13 NLT

Paul had hope. Not a self-manufactured hope based on some unreliable man-made institution or undependable individual. His hope was based on God. For Paul, God was the source of all hope. It was God who had sent His Son to die for the sins of man. It was God who had provided a way of salvation when there had been one. It was God who made possible forgiveness for sin when condemnation and death was the fate faced by mankind. God provided hope when there was none. Earlier, in his letter to the believers in Rome, Paul wrote, “For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope, because who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with endurance” (Romans 8:24-25 NET). Our hope should be in the future fulfillment of God's promise to fully redeem and restore us to a right relationship with Him. While we can enjoy His presence and experience His power even now, there is a day coming when we will be completely transformed into the likeness of His Son, Jesus Christ. The apostle John reminds us, “we are already God's children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is” (1 John 3:2 ESV). Paul put it in slightly different words when he wrote, “For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness” (Galatians 5:5 ESV). While we are daily being transformed into the likeness of Christ by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit, that process will not be completed until God calls us home or His Son returns. That is why Paul referred to the hope of righteousness – a belief in and reliance upon a future, as-yet-unseen reality. The day is coming when we will be like He is. At this point, we are seen as righteous in God's eyes because of the sacrificial death of His Son. We are positionally righteous, but not practically so. We still sin. We still struggle with our sin natures. While positionally righteous before God, we can still find ourselves doing unrighteousness things. But our hope is based on the very real promise of God that there is a day coming when sin will be no more. We will be fully, completely, and wholly holy.

And Paul prays that we might be filled with that hope, revealing itself in peace and joy as we trust in God. Peter put it so clearly and optimistically. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:3-7 ESV). Like Paul, Peter wanted us to know that our hope is based on a future promise. Our salvation, while fully accomplished in Christ, is not yet complete. Jesus saved us so that He might one day glorify us. We will be like He is. We will struggle with sin no more. Our sin natures will be done away with. These mortal bodies will be replaced with new bodies that will not suffer from disease, decay or death. We will enjoy uninterrupted fellowship with God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ. Jesus Himself promised His disciples, “When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am” (John 14:3 NLT).

Paul prayed that God would fill believers with hope – God-based hope that results in joy and peace. Our hope must be based on the finished work of Jesus Christ. Because of what He has done, our future is secure. Nothing that happens on this earth can change that. His sacrifice was sufficient. I can't read this prayer of Paul without thinking of the words of a great old hymn.

My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness; I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ, the solid rock, I stand; all other ground is sinking sand, all other ground is sinking sand.

We need the God of all hope to fill us with joy and peace as we continue to trust in Him. We can trust Him because He sent His Son to die for us. We can trust Him because He has done for us what we could never have done for ourselves. He freed us from slavery to sin and the condemnation of death through the sacrifice of His own Son. And because of that incredible gift, we have hope.

Right, Not Wrong.

But we pray to God that you may not do wrong—not that we may appear to have met the test, but that you may do what is right, though we may seem to have failed. For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth. For we are glad when we are weak and you are strong. Your restoration is what we pray for. – 1 Corinthians 13:7-9 ESV

Paul was the consummate pastor. He had a pastor's heart and cared deeply for the people under his care, whether they were part of church he helped start or members of a fellowship he had never had the pleasure of meeting. And as a result of his pastor's heart, Paul prayed pastoral prayers. At one point, Paul had urged the elders of the church in Ephesus, “So guard yourselves and God's people. Feed and shepherd God's flock--his church, purchased with his own blood--over which the Holy Spirit has appointed you as elders” (Acts 20:28 NLT). He wanted the elders to share his heart for the people of God. In Paul's mind, the members of the local fellowship were far more important than he was. They took precedence over his own well-being, safety and reputation. Paul wasn't in it for the glory or the gain. He didn't do what he did for recognition or reward. He was a servant of God, serving the people of God – selflessly and sacrificially. And the great desire of his heart was that they do might do what was right. He wanted them to live godly lives in Christ Jesus. He wanted them to understand the full scope and benefit of the gospel message. It was that message that was the heart and soul of his ministry, and he would never have done anything to harm or alter that message in any way. Paul was willing to suffer persecution, misunderstanding, rejection, physical abuse, verbal threats, false accusations and assaults on his character – all in order that the people of God might live godly lives. If he had to appear weak in order for those whom he discipled to become strong, so be it. Paul knew that his calling by Christ was to a life of service and humility. So he put himself last and the people he served, first.

And as usual, Paul turned to God for help. He prayed. He prayed regularly and fervently. He prayed expectantly and hopefully. He asked His loving Father to provide the strength, wisdom, and guidance needed so that the flock might live according to His will. It is God's desire that we do right, not wrong. When we pray for spiritual growth and godliness in the lives of others we can pray with assurance, because we are praying within God's will. “God's will is for you to be holy” (1 Thessalonians 4:3 NLT). God's greatest desire for His children is their continual transformation into the likeness of His Son. And so that is what Paul prayed for. That is what he longed for and expected God to bring about, because he knew that “God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns” (Philippians 1:6 NLT). Ultimately, Paul's prayer was for the perfection. He was longing for the day when they would be fully completed in Christ. He knew that God was in the process of perfecting them, sanctifying them, step by step, from “one degree of glory to another” (2 Corinthians 3:18 ESV). Christ-likeness is the objective. Godliness is the goal. And in the meantime, it should be our prayer that each believer live their lives, empowered by God's Spirit, and doing that which is pleasing to God – that which is right, not wrong. Only God can give us new hearts. Only God can transform our behavior. But we can pray to that end – regularly, expectantly, passionately and thankfully.

Never Forget.

May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ. – 2 Thessalonians 3:6 ESV

Living life on this planet can be difficult at times. As followers of Christ, it can be especially so, because we have been called to live lives worthy of God in the midst of a culture that is diametrically opposed to us. It can be easy to lose our focus, grow impatient, feel scared, or become angry. Paul knew that. That is why he prayed this short little prayer on behalf of the believers in Thessalonica. For the most part, they were former pagans who had come to know Christ and were now struggling with everything from persecution to the influence of false teaching. Paul referred to these false teachers as “perverse and evil people” (2 Thessalonians 3:2 NET). The believers to whom Paul wrote and for whom he prayed were struggling with trying to love the Christian life while constantly having to deal with the attacks of the enemy and the daily reality of their own sin natures. So what was Paul's prayer for them? That God would direct their hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ. Notice that he does not pray that God would remove them from their difficulties. He doesn't ask God to remove the false teachers or stop the persecution. His request of God isn't that He give them joy. No, he asks God to direct their hearts. He wants God to gently, kindly guide their hearts into a better understanding of just how much they are loved by God. Not only that, Paul's request includes that they fully comprehend the degree to which Jesus suffered in order that they might have a right relationship with God. The writer of Hebrews emphasizes the suffering of Jesus and our need to fully comprehend what He endured in order that we might have eternal life – “let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne. Think of all the hostility he endured from sinful people; then you won’t become weary and give up. After all, you have not yet given your lives in your struggle against sin” ( Hebrews 12:1-4 NLT). Those two things – the love of God and the endurance of Christ – should provide us with the motivation we need to keep on keeping on. But our natural tendency will be to take them both for granted. It is so easy for us to forget just how amazing it is that God loved us so much that He sent His Son to die in our place. And that He expressed that love “while we were still sinners” (Romans 5:8 ESV). When we deserved the worst, He gave us His best. And we also tend to overlook the incredible reality that Jesus willingly and humbly took on human flesh, lived life as a man, was tortured and hung on a cross, and died so that we might be restored to a right relationship with God the Father. Paul puts it this way: “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:5-8 ESV).

When we find ourselves suffering and struggling in this life, we need to be reminded of the love of God as expressed in the suffering and death of His Son. God's love for us is directly tied to the gift of His Son for us. God sent His Son because He loved us. Jesus came and died because He loved us. Jesus was willing to suffer humiliation, persecution, rejection, false accusations, and a death He didn't deserve – all out of love for us. With all that that in mind, Peter tells us, “In his kindness God called you to share in his eternal glory by means of Christ Jesus. So after you have suffered a little while, he will restore, support, and strengthen you, and he will place you on a firm foundation” (1 Peter 5:10 NLT). We need to keep life in perspective. Along with Paul, we need to constantly remember that “what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later” (Romans 8:18 NLT). We are loved by God. He gave us His greatest gift – His own Son – as proof of that love. And His Son suffered in ways that we will never be able to comprehend, as proof of His love for us. We must never lose sight of those two realities. But because Paul knew that the tendency of all believers would be to do just that, he prayed that God would guide their hearts back to those two incredible truths: the love of God and the faithful, loving endurance of Jesus. I can't think of a better way to wrap this up than with the words of Paul found in his letter to the believers in Rome.

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. – Romans 8:31-39 ESV

Glory According to Grace.

To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. – 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12 ESV

Paul was a brilliant man. He was well-verses in the Scriptures and highly knowledgeable. But at the core, his theology was quite simple. It all centered on God. God was at the center of Paul's life and the central focus of his teachings. He knew that nothing was possible apart from God. Salvation was unachievable. Sanctification was impossible. A right relationship with God was unattainable. He knew from first-hand experience that it was God who had pursued and captured him. He had been living his life in a well-intentioned, but misinformed attempt to earn favor with God. “I was circumcised when I was eight days old. I am a pure-blooded citizen of Israel and a member of the tribe of Benjamin--a real Hebrew if there ever was one! I was a member of the Pharisees, who demand the strictest obedience to the Jewish law. I was so zealous that I harshly persecuted the church. And as for righteousness, I obeyed the law without fault” (Philippians 3:5-6 NLT). But he had been miraculously transformed from a self-righteous, self-focused spiritual over-achiever into a selfless servant of God, and it was all the work of God.

So when Paul prayed for others, he never lost sight of the fact that anything good that needed to happen was going to have to happen because of God. Only God could make them worthy of His calling. He had saved them and He was going to have to be the one to sanctify and progressively transform them into the likeness of His Son. Our best efforts on our best day will never measure up to God's standard for righteousness – which is His own sinless Son. Which is why Paul prayed that God would make them worthy. He knew that it was God who would have to empower them to live their lives in keeping with their status as His children. It was also God who would make it possible to change their resolve to live godly lives into reality. It was the power of God that would give intentionality possibility. He alone can fulfill every work of faith by His power. And Paul never forgot that all of this was due to the unbelievable, inexhaustible grace of God. God would do all of this, not because anyone deserved it, but for His own glory. When God accomplishes something in our lives, He gets the recognition and glory. When we attempt to do it, or take credit for it, we rob Him of glory. As children of God, we live in order that God might be glorified through our lives as we live in dependence upon Him. Our continuing transformation into Christlikeness points to Him. It is the result of His power and grace. Our good deeds, when done by His power and according to His grace, point people to Him. He gets the glory. Paul’s prayer was “that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him.” That is an amazing thought. When we live dependently upon God, the name of Jesus is glorified in us and through us. Everything He died to accomplish is made evident and proved true in our lives. We become living proof that He was exactly who He claimed to be: The Savior of the world and the Son of God. Our new lives prove that His sacrificial death was more than sufficient to redeem hopeless men and women from condemnation and captivity to sin and death. But here is the other amazing thing Paul realized: We are also glorified in Him. When God works in us, according to His grace and power, we are glorified in Christ. Our lives lived according to God's power bring glory to Christ. But we are also glorified in Christ. Paul describes it this way: “So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord--who is the Spirit--makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image” (2 Corinthians 3:18 NLT). We are gradually being transformed into the likeness of Jesus Himself – from one degree of glory to another. And God gets the glory.

The Christian life is not about self-effort. It is about dying to self and living for Christ. It is about abiding in Christ and trusting in God for all that you need. It is about reliance on His power, not our own. It is about submission to His will, instead of our own. It is about seeking His glory, rather than our own. And when we do, we get the extra-added benefit of being transformed into the glorious image of Christ – a process that will find its ultimate fulfillment and completion when we go to be with Him. “Dear friends, we are already God's children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is” (1 John 3:2 NLT). All because of God. .

Love = Holiness.

Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you, and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints. – 1 Thessalonians 3:11-13 ESV

Paul had an obsession with love. He prayed for it constantly. It seems that in virtually every one of his prayers, he requested that God would increase the love of those for whom he prayed. For Paul, love was synonymous with being a Christian, because the kind of love he was referring to was not of this world. It was from above. Along with the apostle John, he could say, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God” (1 John 4:7 ESV). There is an earthly kind of love and then there is godly love. God's love is sacrificial and selfless, while the love of this world is selfish and self-centered. God's brand of love gives. The love of this world gives to get. God's love doesn't show favoritism. The love of this world is based on convenience and reserved for those who are lovely or deemed loveable. So when Paul prayed that the love of the believers in Thessalonica would increase and abound, he was praying for something supernatural. That's why he prayed, “may the Lord make you increase and abound.” It would have to be a work of God. We are incapable manufacturing the kind of love God requires. When Jesus commanded His disciples, “love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12 ESV), He knew that they would find it an impossible command to keep – without help. Which is why He sent the Holy Spirit. It is only with the Spirit's divine assistance that they would find the strength and motivation to love like Jesus loved. And when the Holy Spirit descended upon them that day in Jerusalem, it was a game-changer. They were transformed from timid, self-centered disciples who lived with a what's-in-it-for-me mentality, into selfless, sacrificial servants of God who had a lay-it-all-on-the-line attitude concerning love and life. They would willingly and eagerly take the message of God's love, as expressed through the gift of His Son, to the world. They would spend their lives spreading the good news about Jesus to anyone and everyone who would listen. But they would also grow in their love for one another.

And that was Paul's prayer for all believers – that they increase and abound in Christ-like love for each other. And that should be our prayer today. Jesus said, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35 ESV). It is our love that sets us apart or makes us holy. It is our capacity to love like Jesus loved that marks us as His followers. The kind of love Paul has in mind is a jaw-dropping, eye-popping love that is inexplicable and impossible to replicate. It comes from God. The apostle John wrote, “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love” (1 John 4:8 ESV). Obviously, everyone loves. But not in the way that God demands. And if our brand of love is not the love of God, then we don't really know God. I find it interesting that the disciples once asked of Jesus, “Teach us to pray.” But you never read of the asking Jesus to teach them to love. Why? Because I believe that, in their minds, prayer was a ticket to getting things from God. Like many of us, they viewed prayer as a kind of resource that would allow them to tap into God's power and put them on the receiving end of His blessings. But they had no desire to learn to love. Partly because they probably thought they already knew how. But also because love, even on a purely human level, requires giving. Love in its very essence is an act of giving. You give yourself away. And you don't always get something in return. To love and not be loved in return can hurt. To have your love refused can be devastating. But that is the very kind of love Jesus and Paul were talking about. The love of God. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16 ESV).

But what's goal of this kind of love? Well, God's love results in eternal life. He gave His Son so that those who believe in Him might receive forgiveness of sin and salvation from condemnation and death. God's kind of love produces holiness. Which is why Paul prayed, “so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness.” As we love as God loves, it transforms us. It changes us from the inside out. We learn to become less self-obsessed and more selfless. We discover the joy of giving without the nagging need to get something in return. We experience the life-transforming joy of loving another person for the sole purpose of seeing them come to know the love of God. Again, the apostle John puts this thought in very simple terms: “No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us” (1 John 4:12 NLT). God's love is made complete, it comes full circle, when it flows from Him to us and on to others. God's love was not intended to stop at us, backing up within us like a stagnant pool. It was intended to be shared and to flow from us like a life-giving stream, refreshing all those to whom it touches. So our prayer should be that our love increase and abound. We should desire to see God produce in us a love that is beyond measure and imagination.

Beyond Imagination.

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. – Ephesians 3:20-21 ESV Ephesians 3:14-21

Sometimes our prayers lack faith. We ask, but we don't really believe anything is going to happen. We talk, but we don't expect to hear anything in return. We share, but it feels as if our words disappear into a black hole. But would have us remember that the effectiveness of our prayers are based on the faithfulness of our God, not us. He closes out his prayer for the Ephesian believers with a benediction that focuses on the unfathomable faithfulness and power of our God. He is “able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think.” God is not limited by the limitations of our prayers. The very same power that is at work within us is quite capable of exceeding our expectations and answering our requests, even when we fail to make them. Paul knows that we have divine assistance. We have the Holy Spirit within us. “And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don't know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words” (Romans 8:26 NLT). And the Holy Spirit provides us with something we don't have on our own – an intimate awareness of the mind and heart of God. “No one can know a person's thoughts except that person's own spirit, and no one can know God's thoughts except God's own Spirit” (1 Corinthians 2:11 NLT). So the Spirit prays on our behalf. He knows the will of God perfectly. He understands the heart of God intimately. So He prays for us. And the answers are “infinitely more than we might ask or think” (New Living Translation).

And when God answers even our unspoken prayers, He gets the glory. His power gets revealed through our lives and the body of Christ, His church. God is at work in the lives of and the circumstances surrounding His people. He is accomplishing things we have not even asked to happen. He is performing miracles we didn't even think to request. And on those occasions when we do make requests, the answers come, but often in ways we didn't expect. Rather than giving us what we asked for, He provided what we really needed. We asked for happiness, but He gave us an opportunity to increase in holiness. We asked for comfort, but He provided a perfect environment in which to learn contentment. We asked for healing, but He chose to provide us with a chance to learn to experience His grace even in the midst of weakness.

In one of his other prayers, recorded in the book of Colossians, Paul requested that God would, “give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding” (Colossians 1:9 NLT). The end result of this knowledge of God's will would be that they would grow to know God better and better. When we grow in our knowledge of God, we are able to pray more effectively and in keeping with His will. We will desire what He desires. We will request those things which He longs to give. But in the meantime, in those moments when we don't know what to pray for, or make requests for things we don't really need, God answers anyway. His Spirit prays on our behalf and God answers, lovingly and faithfully. All for His glory and our good. “That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, ‘No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.’ But it was to us that God revealed these things by his Spirit. For his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God's deep secrets. No one can know a person's thoughts except that person's own spirit, and no one can know God's thoughts except God's own Spirit. And we have received God's Spirit (not the world's spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us” (1 Corinthians 2:9-12 NLT). The Spirit is our helper. He is our advocate. He intercedes on our behalf, making requests to God that reflect the heart of God. He knows God's deep secrets. He has an insider's understanding of God's plan and always prays in accordance with it. So does all this mean that there is no need for us to pray? Are we to just leave that up to the Holy Spirit? The obvious answer is, “No!” We have been commanded to pray. “Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done” (Philippians 4:6 NLT). “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 ESV). We are to pray expectantly and constantly. We are to ask of God because it expresses our dependence upon Him. But Paul would have us remember that even when we are unfaithful to pray, God is answering. He doesn't stop giving just because we stopped asking. And He gives in ways that are beyond our wildest imaginations. He has our best in mind. Our holiness is His highest priority. Our transformation into the likeness of His Son is His ultimate objective. But let us never forget that prayer is really less about us than it is about God. We should long to see His glory revealed. We should desire to His power displayed. We should pray that His will be done and His Kingdom come – in our lives and on this earth. Because He knows best.

Power to Know.

…so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, 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 you may be filled with all the fullness of God. – Ephesians 3:17-19 ESV Ephesians 3:14-21

Paul's prayer for the believers in Ephesus was for inner strength, provided by God through His Spirit, so that they would know what it means to have Christ dwell or take up residence within their hearts. Paul was praying that they would have a complete awareness of Christ's transformative presence within them. These were believers that Paul was praying for, but he knew that they could easily miss out on the full reality of their relationship with Christ. So he asked God to give them the power to recognize and realize just how remarkable a gift they had received when they placed their faith in Christ. And he emphasized that faith was the key. It was the key when they first believed and it would be the key to their ongoing relationship with Christ. Paul knew their faith would be tested. His own imprisonment had already had an adverse affect on them. They had become scared. Doubts and questions had crept into their hearts and minds. And Paul knew that they were going to need God to give them strength to endure. Not only that, God would have to empower them to understand the fulness of what they had received in Christ. He referred to them being “rooted and ground in love” – the love of God. “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8 ESV). “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him” (1 John 4:9 ESV). God expressed His remarkable love for mankind by sending His own Son to die on man's behalf. And the believers to whom Paul wrote had personally experienced that love. That love had taken root and provide them with a firm foundation that nothing could ever shake. Paul believed that with all his heart and wrote the believers in Rome so that they might comprehend the truth of the unshakeable reality of God's love. “Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death?” (Romans 8:35 NLT). “And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39 NLT). But Paul wanted the Ephesian believers to know beyond a shadow of a doubt the “breadth and length and height and depth” of that love. He wanted them to experience the full scope of God's love as revealed through Christ – “the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.” Paul knew that, on this earth, we will never fully comprehend the magnitude of the love of Christ, because it is beyond our human capacity. But with God's help, we can grow in our appreciation for and understanding of His love. We can experience, albeit incompletely, what it means to “be filled with all the fulness of God.” God has given us His Spirit. He has made available to us His indwelling power. But we fail to experience the fulness of that power because of sin, stubbornness, self-centeredness, and our constantly faltering faith. It is like having a car with a powerful engine and a full tank of gas, but we never turn on the ignition. The power is there, but we fail to make use of it. Which is why Paul prayed for power from God to provide the strength necessary to turn the key and feel the full force of God's indwelling presence in our lives. Far too often we wallow in mediocrity and weakness when we could be experiencing the transforming power of God. The full love of God is unknowable and incomprehensible – without God's help. We will never fully appreciate just what He has done for us without the Spirit's assistance. God's love for us has no limits, but we are limited in our ability to understand it. That's why we need God's help. What a great reminder to each of us to pray constantly for one another for God's divine assistance. We can't fully appreciate all that we have been given in Christ without God's help. We are like children who have received a massive inheritance, but lack the mental capacity to comprehend the incredible nature of the wealth at our disposal. We end up settling for so much less. We have the love of God available to us and we would rather play around with the weak and worthless affections of this world. C.S. Lewis put it well when he wrote, “It would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased” (C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory).

Inner Strength.

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 you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being… – Ephesians 3:14-16 ESV

Ephesians 3:14-21

Paul was a praying man. He prayed constantly for the people over whom God had placed him as a shepherd, and his prayers reveal not only his heart of love, but his understanding of God's will. Paul opened his letter to the Ephesians with a prayer and, here in chapter three, he shares the content of yet another one of his prayers for them. Paul wrote this letter from prison and he told them that he did not want them “to lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory” (Ephesians 3:13 ESV). Then he wrote, “For this reason I bow my knees before God.” Paul's prayer was motivated by his desire that they not lose heart. He didn't want his imprisonment to leave them scared, in doubt, or lacking in faith. He no doubt knew that they would find his imprisonment for sharing the gospel more than a bit intimidating. It would have been easy for them to question whether they would be next. In Paul's day, being a Christian could be dangerous, especially for Gentile converts living in a pagan context. Persecution was a constant reality. So Paul told them what he was praying for them. He wanted them to know of his concern but, more than that, he wanted them to know what the solution was. He made it clear that his prayer on their behalf was directed the the Father. He was going directly to the source. Paul uses a word play in the Greek. He says that he bowed before the Father (patera) from whom every family (patria) is named. He is the Father of the fathers of all the families on earth. He is the creator of all mankind, so ultimately He is the Father of all. Without Him, no one would exist. Paul is reminding his readers of God's deity and dominion over all things. Paul was taking their needs to the God of the universe.

And what was it that Paul was asking God for? Strength. His pray was “that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being.” Paul was asking God to provide them with power – not an outward display of His power, but an inner strength provided by the indwelling Holy Spirit. Paul was praying his prayer from prison. He was not asking God to break open the bars and release him. He was not asking God to show a power of force and deliver the Ephesian believers from any and all persecution. He was praying for inner strength. Paul knew what it meant to have that kind of strength. In his letter to the Philippians, he wrote, “Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:11-13 ESV). Paul had experienced an up and down life, filled with tremendous joys and extreme heartache. He had been beaten, shipwrecked, stoned and left for dead, imprisoned repeatedly, threatened, chased out of town, and ridiculed relentlessly. Yet he was able to say, “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” Paul knew that the key to their survival was power provided by God – life-transforming, boldness-producing power that would come from the inside out.

What many of us lack as believers is endurance. We give up far too easily. When faced with difficulties, trials or trouble of any kind, we immediately begin to figure out how to get ourselves out of the situation in which we find ourselves. We even pray that God would deliver us from the difficulty. But it may be that God wants to use the very circumstances from which we seek deliverance to make us stronger. I could be that God wants to reveal His power within us while the trouble looms all around us. He wants us to learn that inner strength, when provided by Him, always prevails over external circumstances. Paul wrote the majority of his letters from prison. He remained steadfast and faithful even when faced with some of the most difficult situations. He did not let external conditions distract or defeat him, because he found strength from Holy Spirit. So he prayed that God would do the same thing for the believers in Ephesus. And that should be our prayer for one another today: God-provided, Holy Spirit-produced inner strength. The strength to face any and all circumstances with faith, joy, patience, contentment, and an overwhelming sense of God's faithful presence. A change in our circumstances won't make us stronger, but a change in perspective will. We must know that our God is in charge, all-powerful, and deeply in love with us, regardless of what our surroundings or situation may seem to say. We need His strength to patiently wait for His will to be done. We need His power to transform our inner man and give us strength to stand strong in the midst of the storms of life.

Pure and Blameless.

And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. – Philippians 1:9-11 ESV

It was Paul's prayer that those to whom he wrote would increase in love, but in a love that would be accompanied by knowledge and discernment. It was his desire that their love would be truth-based and God-directed. He knew that the kind of love God required was different than that found in the world. God's brand of love produces a life that is pure and blameless. That doesn't mean that we can live sinless, perfect lives on this earth, but as we learn to love as God loves, it produces an increasing degree of Christ-likeness in our lives. The love of God is selfless and sincere, not selfish and hypocritical. In his great “love chapter,” Paul describes God's love in these terms: “Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance” (1 Corinthians 13:4-7 NLT). That is the kind of love that Paul prays will abound or increase more and more. It is that kind of love that will allow us to stand before Christ some day pure and blameless. And Paul reminds us that this kind of love is the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ. He must produce this kind of love within us. We can't fake it or self-manufacture it. Paul describes the fruit of the Spirit as “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23 NLT). Love is a byproduct of righteousness. Righteousness is a gift provided to us by Jesus Christ. Isaiah reminds us that, “When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6 NLT).

We must never forget that our righteousness comes from Christ. In the same way, our ability to love comes from Christ. We cannot love with the kind of love He did apart from Him. Jesus commanded us to “love one another: just as I have loved you” (John 13:34 ESV). The apostle John writes, “let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God” (1 John 4:7 ESV). So we are to love on God's terms. We are to love with God's love. That is the kind of love Paul prays will increase more and more in the lives of believers. And when we love like that, God gets all the praise, glory and honor. Why? Because, apart from Him, we couldn't pull it off. Jesus made it very clear. “Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5 ESV). Bearing fruit – the fruit of righteousness – is what it is all about. And that fruit includes love – the kind of love that was modeled by God, comes through Christ, is made possible by the indwelling Holy Spirit and produces a pure and blameless life.

The reason Paul prayed for this to happen was because He knew that it was not going to be the norm for any believers. Our sin natures are constantly seeking to get us to love by our own standard, not God's. We are prone to selfishness and self-centeredness. We seek our own way. We love only if we get love in return. We operate with a what's-in-it-for-me mentality. So Paul prayed that our love would increase. But he wanted it to be God's kind of love. For that to happen, he knew that God would have to produce it. That requires a knowledge of God and a willing reliance upon the Holy Spirit's direction in our lives. To love what God loves, we must know Him well enough to understand where His heart lies. We must have knowledge and discernment to know the difference between our loves and His. As we grow to know Him better, we will end up loving what He loves. We will love like He loves. His love is always focused on righteousness and redemption. He loves in order to bring about change and transformation. His love has a purpose. It is always for our good and His glory. We must learn to love that way. It is His love, perfect in us and flowing through us, that will make a real difference in this world, and result in our lives being pure and blameless when we stand before Him some day.

Love, Knowledge and Discernment.

And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. – Philippians 1:9-11 ESV

It was Paul's desire that the love of the believers in Philippi would grow more and more. He knew how important love was in the life of the believer. He fully understood that, because God has loved us, we are obligated to love others. God is love, and as His children, we are to express His nature. But Paul also qualified His request for increasing love by requesting that it be accompanied by knowledge and discernment. He was not asking for a sentimental sort of love, but a well-reasoned and Christ-like love founded on an understanding of the truth of God. Our love is not to be without discrimination or discernment. The psalmist writes, “You who love the Lord, hate evil!” (Psalm 97:10 NLT). Paul himself wrote to the believers in Rome, “Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.” (Romans 12:9 ESV). In his prayer for the Philippian believers Paul gives his reason for requesting love accompanied by knowledge and discernment – “so that you may approve what is excellent.” The NET Bible translates that phrase as “so that you can decide what is best.” Our love, as it grows, if accompanied by knowledge and discernment, will help us establish right priorities and enable us to focus on what really matters. The problem today is that love has become non-discerning and indiscriminate. We love without thought or priority. We love food, cars,  entertainment, pleasure and people all equally and without considering what it is that God loves. What does His heart beat fast for?

There are things in life that we are NOT to love. God hates pride. So should we. God hates injustice. So should we. But there are also things that are not immoral or unethical, that we have made priorities or “loves” in our lives, that have taken the place of God. We love convenience more than God or others. We love our own comfort more than we love God or others. We love acceptance, the praise of men, the things of this world, our own agendas, and a host of other things more than we love God or others. But Paul prays that our love will be marked by knowledge of the truth and a Spirit-provided discernment that will allow us to see what really matters. True love can be costly. God showed His love for mankind by sending His own Son to die. It cost Him dearly. God knew what needed to be done and He did it. His love was driven by what was best. Jesus' love for us was also driven by what was best – what His Father wanted. We are to love, but always on God's terms. Sometimes, our brand of love can do more harm than good. In our day and age, we have confused tolerance with love. We are told to love everybody. But what we are really being told to do is approve of what everyone is doing. Our love is to be all-accepting and non-discriminatory. We are not to judge. We are not free to disapprove. But the Word of God would have us love – within reason and with truth as our standard. In the Proverbs we read, “There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers” (Proverbs 6:16-19 ESV). God will not overlook sin. He can’t. So neither should we. That does not mean that we should refrain from showing grace. But at no point are we to show love without discernment. Sometimes the greatest form of love is that which points out the sin in another person's life. If sin separates us from God, then letting someone know that what they are doing is putting a barrier between them and God is the most loving thing you could do for them. Telling them you love them while knowing that their behavior is an affront to God is anything but loving.

What if we prayed this prayer for one another today? Can you imagine what it might be like if each of us, as believers, were more knowledgeable and discerning in our love? What would it be like if we truly learned to love as God loves? Peter tells us, “Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8 ESV). But notice that he says, love covers a multitude of sins, not accepts or ignores them. Yes, we need to love more. But we need love that is based on knowledge and discernment. We need love that approves of and agrees with what is best – God's best. How did God love us? While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. God loved us at our worst, but He was not wiling to leave us that way. The apostle John reminds us, “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8 ESV). “You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin” (1 John 3:5 ESV). God's love was based on redeeming us and renewing us into the likeness of His Son. He didn't love us by leaving us just like we were. He loved us so that He might justify and sanctify us. And we are to love in that very same way.

Power and Authority.

…that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.  And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. – Ephesians 1:20-23 ESV Ephesians 1:15-23

Paul ends his prayer with a rather strange, but highly appropriate reminder of the source of the hope of our calling, our glorious inheritance and the immeasurable power at our disposal. It is Christ, the resurrected, ruling, righteous, and soon-to-be-returning Son of God and Savior of mankind. It is Jesus Christ who makes it possible for us to have a restored relationship with God. His death satisfied the just demands of a holy God. He died in our place so that the penalty for our sins might be paid in full and our condemnation be removed once and for all. His death made possible our adoption by God and our new status as His children. Our calling, our future inheritance and the power of God available to us are all a result of the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ on the cross. The amazing thing is that He willingly left His rightful place at God's side and came to earth, took on human flesh, and died so that we might live. But Paul reminds us that, after His resurrection, made possible by God's “great might,” Jesus returned to His Father's side and was restored to His rightful position with all the power and authority that was His.

As important as it is that we believe Jesus came as a baby and lived His life as a human being, died on a cross and rose again, it is essential that we understand that Jesus is God, with all the “rule and authority and power and dominion” that God possessed. He is “above every name that is named.” God “put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church.” In other words, Jesus Christ possesses unsurpassed power and authority, and deserves our unwavering allegiance as the King of kings and Lord of lords. We tend to think that when Jesus cried out on the cross, “It is finished!,” He was saying that His work was done. And while His earthly work had come to a point of completion with His death, He is far from finished. He has returned to His Father's side and He continues to work on our behalf as the head of the church, His body. That means that we, as members of that body, report to Him. And the power and authority that Jesus Christ possesses passes down to us as members of His Kingdom. He has every right to rule and reign over our lives. But we have a responsibility to act as His ambassadors, extending His reign over the earth and living as obedient citizens of His Kingdom as we do so. It is interesting that Paul ends his prayer with a reminder of the power and authority of Christ. In a sense, it is when we come to understand the rightful place of Jesus Christ as our ultimate authority and the unquestioned ruler over our lives, that we really come to know God. Jesus isn't just a doorway through which we walk to get to God. He is God. He is God the Son, the second person of the Trinity. He is a vital part of the Godhead – God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Mysterious and inexplicable, but essential to what we believe about Jesus Christ and His subsequent role as our returning King. The apostle John was given a vision of what His future return will look like. “Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords” (Revelation 19:11-16 ESV).

He is coming again and this time it will be with power and authority. He is coming as the King of kings and Lord of lord. He has no equal. No one will be able to oppose Him. He will bring judgment to the earth. He will destroy the enemies of God. He will establish His Kingdom on the earth and reign in righteousness. But while all of that is somewhere out in the future, we must not forget that Jesus Christ possesses that same power and authority right now. We are to treat Him as our King and Lord each and every day of our lives. It is He who makes it possible for us to pray. Our very ability to come before God is a byproduct of His death on the cross. We enter into God's presence because of Christ's blood, not because we somehow deserve to be there. Even in our prayers we should acknowledge the great debt we owe to Jesus for what He has done. We can know God because we know Christ.

Hope, Riches and Power.

…having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might… – Ephesians 1:18-19 ESV

Ephesians 1:15-22

Paul had been consistently asking that God would give “the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him” to the believers in Ephesus for whom he prayed. He knew that as they grew to know God better, they would also grow in their understanding of and appreciation for all that He had done for them. It was Paul's desire that they would know the hope to which God had called them. In the Greek, the word, hope, has to do with “expectation of good.” It is a joyful and confident expectation based on the knowledge that God has called us into a relationship with Him. He has good things in store for us. He loved us enough to save us, but He is also in the process of sanctifying us. We can expect that God will continue His good work of transforming us into the likeness of His Son. We should live with a sense of hope, an expectation of good, even when things appear to be going bad. As we grow in our knowledge of God, we begin to understand just how loving, gracious, merciful and powerful He really is.

In fact, that is part of what Paul prayed for. He wanted the believers in Ephesus to know “what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe.” For far too many of us, the power of God remains an unknown quantity in our lives. It is not that it is absent, but that we fail to see and appreciate it. God is always at work. His power is always available to us. But rather than avail ourselves of that power, we tend to rely on our own. Then we wonder why our spiritual lives seem so weak and powerless. We question why God doesn't appear to working in our lives like He is in the lives of others. But it goes back to the knowledge of God. It is as we grow to know Him better, that we begin to understand just how powerful He really is and how that power is available to us on a daily basis. The stories we read in the Bible become far more than antiquated antidotes of God's power in the distant past. They become exciting examples of the kind of power available to us right here, right now. Our God is still a miracle-working God. He is still capable of doing the impossible, conquering the unbeatable, delivering the oppressed, protecting the innocent and revealing His power in a myriad of ways on a daily basis. As believers in Jesus Christ, we have been given access to the same power that raised Him from the dead. But it is one thing to know about that power intellectually, and another thing to know about it experientially. Paul would have us know God's power in a real and intimate way. He would want us to have the daily experience of the immeasurable greatness of God's power.

Finally, Paul prayed for a growing awareness of “the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints.” There is a sense in which we must live our lives on this earth with our eyes focused on the reality of our future inheritance. This world is not our home. God has something far greater prepared for us. Any joy we experience in this life is nothing compared with what is to come. This world is marred by sin and, even as believers, our ability to know and experience God is hampered by our own sin natures. But there is a day coming when we will be free from all the restrictions of sin. We will enjoy uninterrupted fellowship with God and all those who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior. No more sin, sorrow, pain, suffering, war, abuse, lying, murder or death. God has promised it. We must believe it. Warren Wiersbe has said, “To know God personally is salvation. To know Him increasingly is sanctification. To know Him perfectly is glorification.” That about covers the contents of Paul's prayer. He would have us know God better and better. It begins at salvation, but it does not stop there. All the while we live on this earth, we are to grow in our knowledge of God. We are to experience His power and increase in our faith as He reveals Himself to us in real and tangible ways. But ultimately, we will know Him perfectly. That is the ultimate objective. It is why Jesus died. Even He said, “this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3 ESV). Knowing God is what it is all about. We can know Him now because of Jesus' death on the cross. We can know Him increasingly better because of His Spirit within us and the Word in which He reveals Himself to us. But one day we will know Him perfectly and personally, free from sin, and without interruption or interference of any kind.