(Ephesians 3.20-21, NIV)

Appealing to a Higher Power
Author: Matthew Killough

Who is the highest power you can appeal to? Who is the highest power you have ever appealed to? Growing up in Grants, NM boasting about a higher power was a common occurrence when I was a young child. This was largely due to the fact that Grants was full of extended families. Here is what I mean: a group of children would be playing in the neighborhood when one child would hurt another, sometimes by accident and sometimes on purpose. Then the threats would begin, “My brother is going to beat you up… he is on the high school football team!” The other would fire back, “My cousin can beat up your brother… he has a purple belt in karate!” Back and forth it would go until someone would claim their cousin was a Navy Seal or Chuck Norris!

In Ephesians 3:14 – 21, Paul appeals to the highest power in the universe: the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. However, Paul does not appeal to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine to have him inflict pain or suffering on us. On the contrary Paul’s appeal is to strengthen you with power through his Spirit because God’s has glorious riches. Also, this appeal is not just a simple trivia fact… no, no, no… it is so we may know how wide and long and high and how deep is the love of Christ. Indeed, this love is a love that surpasses knowledge. With this power at work in us God is glorified in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever.

So if you are anxious today, appeal to a higher power: no, not your boss or your spouse or even your local government. Rather appeal to the father. Instead of being anxious, allow Christ to dwell in your hearts through faith. Focus on being rooted and established in love rather than being tossed back and forth by waves and blown here and there by every wind that comes along. This Paul’s hope for you, as well as all Christians who read his letter to the Ephesians.

Questions:

How often do you pray that others may be “strengthened with the power of God?” If you do not typically pray this, why do you think you do not? Why do we find it easier to pray for specific illnesses than it is to pray for God’s power to work in people? Think of someone for whom you can pray this prayer for and do it now.

Describe a time when you have felt completely filled with the power and fullness of God? What sort of things transpired to create that moment? How much of this relied on your own actions and how much on situations you found yourself in that you knew was God at work?

What is the most amazing, unbelievable, awesome thing you can think of? Have you ever seen this in real life? What is the most amazing thing you have seen in real life, with your own eyes? Now, what is your reaction to knowing that God is able to do even more than what you have seen or even more than you can imagine?