Strong spirits: love and power

If you are a person of faith, and if you are a person of prayer, what would you pray for a person or people that you love? Consider that a while. What would you ask God for, on behalf of someone you love very much?

In the middle of the book of Ephesians, the apostle Paul inserts his prayer for them. He was very close to these people and it shows in the prayer that he prays. Here are some snippets (full prayer can be found in Ephesians 3:14-21) :

"I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being..." "that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith." "that you may have power...to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ... "that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." "God can do immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine..."

Read the full prayer - it's amazing! And here's the best part: it applies to us, too! Learn this prayer. Pray this prayer. You have no idea how much God loves you!

Besides serving as pastor at Caledonia Congregational Church, Gary Schwerin is the Spiritual Development Minister for the YMCA of the Rock River Valley and Executive Director of Bridge Ministries of Rockford. Prior to launching Bridge Ministries, Gary spent many years in leadership with Young Life. His columns appear here every Sunday - to see them all, subscribe to our daily email.

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