(Eph. 3:14-21.)

The apostle believed in the efficacy of prayer. Would that we might imitate him in this respect. Is it not true that often our prayers are formal or customary or habitual, rather than spontaneous desires and praises arising from the needs and thankfulness of our heart?

We find Paul praying at his conversion (Acts 9:ii); when he starts on a journey (13:3); in prison (16:25); when leaving the assemblies (brought out through his ministry) as he goes up to Jerusalem (20:36); and from his own statement in his various epistles, he is constantly in prayer for the saints he loves so well. He exhorts us to pray "without ceasing" (i Thess. 5:17); "always" (Eph. 6:18), which means there is no time when prayer is not proper; "everywhere" (i Tim. 2:8), which means there is no place where prayer is not appropriate; and "in everything" (Phil. 4:6),which means there is nothing the Christian needs about which we should not pray.

Would that we realized more our need of prayer, and also the fact that God has given His people this great power! Paul's was a fellowship of prayer.

He prayed for all the saints in the various assemblies to which he ministered, mentioning the fact in his letters to them, except in the case of the poor legalized Galatians; and even to them he seems to intimate that he had gone to the Lord about them (5:10), No doubt, if it were possible, he prayed more earnestly for them than for those to whom he tells that he prays for them, because the deep need of the Galatians would but bring out the earnest longing for their blessing which he carried in his bosom. His not mentioning fellowship in prayer with them is a stern rebuke. He could have no fellowship with those who had turned from Christ to be justified by law.

The apostle prayed that the Colossian saints "might be filled with the knowledge of His will" (Col. 1:9); that he might come unto the Romans to impart some spiritual gift (Rom. 1:10, 11); that the Philippians might be kept in the path in which they had started (Phil. 1:4-6); that the name of the Lord Jesus Christ might be glorified in the Thessalonians (2 Thess. 1:12); that the Corinthians might do no evil (2 Cor. 13:7), and above all for the Ephesians, blest as they were "with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ." They are on this account but the more subject to Satan's attacks, and he prays for them to have the spirit of wisdom and revelation so that they might know the heavenly hope and riches and power, all of which is wrought in Christ raised from the dead (Eph. 1:16-20).

He also offers for them this wonderful prayer of chap. 3:, but not until he asks for them wisdom to know the power of God as seen in the risen Christ. Chap. 3:is a sanctuary prayer and is not in place until the fact of justification of sinners has been realized. We must pass the altar of sacrifice and clearance of sin before we can enter the holy place for communion with God.

The apostle not only prayed for the saints but longed for their prayers on his behalf, especially for the gospel (2 Cor. 1:ii; Col. 4:3; 2 Thess. 3:i). Should we not have fellowship in prayer, one with the other, and especially for those of the Lord's people who are laboring in the gospel; that they may have free utterance, that doors may be opened to them, for blessing on the Word, and for their temporal support? Let us, with our tithes, bring our prayers into the storehouse, that God may open the windows of heaven and pour out such a blessing there will be no room to receive it.

The measure of the blessing for which Paul prayed was "the riches of His glory." Words fail to describe what this would mean – it is beyond all thought or comprehension, or as he says later of God's love, it "passeth knowledge." His prayer for the Ephesian saints was illimitable and immeasurable-limited or measured only by the glory of an infinite God.

Did we but realize who is the Answerer of our prayers, how much more faith and freedom and power in prayer we should have! It is the Almighty God Himself, and He has told us we cannot ask too much of Him " whatsoever ye shall ask in My name I will do it."

Ver. 16.This prayer asks God for strength. How great is our need of it! How weak is our grasp of the revealed wonders of divine love! Truly in us the treasure of God's testimony is in earthen vessels.

But God has given His saints the eternal Spirit to strengthen us with His might. The indwelling Spirit means strength to the Christian, but it is only as we let Him have His way with us and live to Christ. "If we live in the Spirit let us also walk in the Spirit."

He strengthens the inner man, and thus keeps the outer man under.

When we are in Christ Jesus there is a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17). The flesh is not dead but subjected to the Spirit. We reckon ourselves dead to sin although sin is there as we know too well. As we walk in the Spirit so the new nature is strong and overcomes the old. If we walk not in the Spirit the spiritual nature languishes and the flesh gets the upper hand. We are strengthened in the inner man when God's Spirit rules our ways (Rom. 8:4, 5; Gal. 5:16, 22; Rom, 8:26). And the inner man is renewed day by day (2 Cor. 4:16).

Ver. 17.Indwelling.

Why should the apostle pray for Christ to dwell in our hearts by faith, when He is in the heart of every child of God? It is a stronger word than simply to be in our hearts. The word literally means, dwell deep down, or find a habitation; the thought being of a regular, constant home where we dwell always, to which we return at night, no matter where we may have gone through the day. As the indwelling Spirit means strength, so the indwelling Christ means love. The Spirit takes up His abode in us after new birth to reveal to us the varied beauties and glories of Christ (John 16:13-15). The Spirit actually and ever dwells in us (i Cor. 6:19 and Eph. 4:30) but Christ only in the measure and exercise of faith, as the Spirit shows Him to us; and as the blessed Spirit reveals to us Christ's perfections and affections, we learn to love Him more and more. Thus each day His presence, by faith, becomes more real to us, and more desired by us.

The soil in which the Christian life grows and thrives is love. Our roots must reach down into it if we would be established and bear fruit for the Master. We must "take root downward " before we can "bear fruit upward" (i John 4:17). The Lord Jesus did not die for us because we were worthy, but because He loved. A knowledge of this begets love in us too-love to God for His grace toward us; to His children because they belong to Him; and not only so, but possessed, by the new birth, of that life which is love, love becomes, in all things and everywhere, our principle of action according to the measure in which Christ dwells in our hearts.

Ver. 18. Fellowship.

The apostle would share the blessing with all saints. It has been said, " No one has a monopoly of the love of Christ." Paul goes beyond this and so far from monopolizing would press it upon all. He would give all the members of the Body of Christ all they could know of His love. If one member suffer the others suffer with it; also if one is honored all rejoice. So he would have all to comprehend to the extent of which each was capable, the love of Christ (see i Thess. 3:12). Shall we not share our blessings with all the members of the Body as far as we are able?

God's love is as broad as from " east to west;" as long as eternity itself; its depth as the depths of the sea and its height reaches up through the heavens, up and up and up without limit on into infinity. This love can save a guilty wretch or feed an insignificant sparrow. Should we not seek earnestly to know it more and enjoy it more? Then we can set it better before the lost and dying world which knows it not.

Ver. 19. Knowledge.

The knowledge of the unknowable. It is at best only a glimpse of Christ's love which we get. As it were, we touch only on the edge of an infinite, eternal sea which has no boundaries and whose depths cannot be sounded. Shall that deter us from seeking to know more about it ? Shall the fact that we can never know all the love of Christ deter us from knowing all we can ? Eternity will but bring new and fresh revelations of His grace and love, but the more we know of it here, the happier we will be, the more free from care, and the more ready to bear and endure all for His sake. May we heed as the Spirit would reveal to us the love of God in the face of Jesus Christ!

Ver. 19.Filling.

The last petition is for filling. How empty we are at our best of the things of God. How full of our own ways and works! How much more engrossed with what is in and around us than with the fulness of the glorious things which are in God. In Christ dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, and we are complete in Him. Our bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost to make known to us that fulness, but only as He is ungrieved in us by our daily ways will He fulfil that office. All that ''fulness of God" is for us, but is only enjoyed by subject, obedient hearts. Let us, too, pray for this to rest upon one another through the power of the Holy Ghost.

And after all this, God has blessing for us yet far beyond all we can ask or think. Well may the song of praise well up in our hearts and burst forth from our lips "Unto Him be glory in the assembly by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, age without end. Amen." F.