Yesterday, I led another of our Come Away day retreats (in Los Angeles). It was a beautiful, clear, warm winter day. It is one of the graces of Southern California living, I know!
Toward the end of our four hours of solitude with the Lord, I had what seemed to me to be a word from God. He drew me to a familiar prayer of Paul in Ephesians:
“I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” –Ephesians 3:16-19 (TNIV),
I imagined myself training a staff team and asking this question:
“What would you expect to happen in the lives of Christian for whom you prayed this prayer regularly? What changes in their lives, their relationships and their work would you anticipate?”
How would I answer such a question? What would I envision as fruit of such a prayer?
- God generously and richly strengthening us with inward spiritual power (16).
- More and more vital, robust interior lives that give evidence to Christ’s real presence dwelling in each of us and among all of us who trust Him (17a).
- Inward empowerment that enables His indwelling our lives and communities.
- Actions, words and attitudes of our lives saturated and grounded in genuine, selfless love for God and one another (17b).
- Loving lives and communities that enable us, together, to more fully grasp the vast dimensions of Christ love for us and for His world (18).
- A greater perception of what we can never fully comprehend, that Christ is committed to our good, delighted in our lives and pleased to call us brothers and sisters (19a).
- The outcome that we are filled in every way and to every degree with God’s own fullness (19b).
If God answered this simple prayer for the community of God’s people in our particular church community, we couldn’t keep people from coming and staying. We wouldn’t be inviting them to a program, a service or a meeting, but to a people in whom God is richly, powerfully and lovingly present. Father, may the grace of this prayer find places to bear fruit among us. Amen.
Amen Alan! This resonantes with me! We have been praying in my community that we would be a people that attracts others because of what God is doing among us! If we reflected the depth and height and length and width of His love we would overflow with people! May this be true this year!
Kimberly
That would be amazing. A real taste of the Kingdom to come…
[...] “What Do We Expect From Prayer?” – A core passage that I’ve preached and led retreats out of is Paul the apostle’s prayer in Ephesians 3:14-21. This post from October 2009 was a retreat journal entry of my own in which I imagined what a church community would look like if this prayer was deeply answered in it. [...]