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PAUL KNEELS BEFORE THE FATHER!

John Piper once made the observation that in order to sustain a heart for prayer, a movement of prayer within yourself, within the church, or within a nation, we have to think and talk about something besides prayer. In particular, we have to remind ourselves, and/or others, of two things.

First, we need to remind ourselves that we are a people at war. As Christians, we ought to know that better than anyone for not only have we personally been wounded from time to time, but the New Testament bristles with the language of warfare. Paul urged Timothy to fight the good fight and to avoid getting tangled up in civilian affairs. He reminded him that a good soldier is one who endures hardship. And here, in his letter to the Ephesians, he commanded the believers to “put on the full armor of God so that they can stand up against the devil’s schemes.

The second prerequisite for having a heart for prayer is confessing that God is sovereign. Before we can pray with any sort of boldness we must be convinced that God can do all things. We must be convinced that his plans, or our plans when they are in line up with his purposes, cannot be thwarted. In other words, to be motivated to spend time in prayer, to have a heart for prayer, we must rebuke the idea, within ourselves as well as within the world, that God is a wimp.

To these two prerequisites, I would add a third one. To have a heart for prayer we must be convinced that God loves us. We must believe that God is for us and not against us. Most of us, whether we are willing to admit it or not, have trouble grasping the fact that God loves us unconditionally. Maybe that’s why we have the Bible which tells us in a hundred different ways of God’s amazing love.

For example, when God sent Ananias to Saul, when this firebrand was literally down and out, that was an act of love. For in sending Ananias, God lifted Saul out of the ashes of his life, redirected him, and gave him the power to live a life to God’s glory. God stooped down and lifted Saul up – that’s love.

For all these reasons, Paul kneeled before the Father. In Ephesians 3 we read:
14 For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name.
16 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 saints, 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 fulness of God.
20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
Paul kneeled, this, judging from the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector in Luke 18, was not the common posture for praying in his day. Nor is it the common posture in our day. This is what makes the cartoon Family Circus so interesting. For whenever it’s creator, Bil Keane, pictures the children praying they are always in the kneeling position. Perhaps, with their childlike faith they just sense that kneeling is the proper posture for praying. Or, maybe pride doesn’t get in the way as it does with adults. Or, as some might say, perhaps it is because they don’t know any better.
Well, as adults we do know better. We know that Scripture lays down no rules about a proper posture in this matter. We know it is possible to pray while lying down, sitting up, dancing to and fro, walking, hiking, jogging, and pacing; especially when pacing. It is even possible to pray in the slouching position. In the slouching position? Well maybe not in the slouching position, for that position even among evangelicals seems to be irreverent.
But when we rule out the “slouching” position, and we ought to rule it out, we open ourselves up for the possibility that there is a proper posture. Certainly the writer of Psalm 95 sensed that kneeling was the proper response. For, in part, he wrote:
Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD;
let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.
2 Let us come before him with thanksgiving
and extol him with music and song.
3 For the LORD is the great God,
the great King above all gods.
4 In his hand are the depths of the earth,
and the mountain peaks belong to him.
5 The sea is his, for he made it,
and his hands formed the dry land.
6 Come, let us bow down in worship,
let us kneel before the LORD our Maker;
7a for he is our God
and we are the people of his pasture,
the flock under his care.

The psalmist, seeing God as the great King, as the creator of heaven and earth, as our Maker, and as our Great Shepherd, senses that kneeling is the proper way to honor God as our Lord and King. And while there may be no proper posture for praying, kneeling speaks volumes as to our attitude toward God, as our King, and our willingness to submit to his authority.

It also speaks of earnestness or emotional intensity. For Ezra kneeled in prayer and confession when he was grieved by the knowledge that the Israelites of his day had married foreign women. He kneeled and wept for the nation. We also picture Jesus as kneeling in the Garden of Gethsemane for Scripture tells us that “he fell with his face to the ground and prayed.”

And so it seems reasonable to say that in times of emotional intensity that kneeling before our Father in Heaven just seems to be the proper posture. Well, in Ephesians Paul is on an emotional high. He has just laid out for the Ephesian believers, and us, all that God has done for us.

God the Father has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms, he has chosen us to be holy and blameless, he has predestined us to be adopted as his children through Jesus Christ, he has redeemed us by his blood, forgiven us, and lavished on us all wisdom and knowledge. Yes, he has raised us from the dead, he has redirected our lives, and he has given us the power to live for Him. For this reason, and because we all tend to get discouraged, Paul kneeled and prayed for the Ephesians.
His prayer, this prayer, essentially consist of four petitions each one beginning with the word “that.” In brief, Paul prayed;
that their inner being would be strengthened. That Christ would dwell in their hearts. That they would have the power to grasp the love of Christ and that they would be filled with the perfect fulness of God.

Earlier, in chapter one, he prayed for their understanding. He prayed that the eyes of their hearts would be enlightened. Here, in chapter three, he prays for power and fulfillment.

The first two petitions belong together as they have to do with our inner being; our inner spirit and our heart. Before we came to know Christ we were kicked about by the world, we were subject to our own selfish desires, and we were held in bondage by Satan. When we believed Christ, when we invited him into our heart, we were set free and given the power, through the Holy Spirit, to live as free men and women. So now in Christ, the Holy Spirit lives within us. But, we can quench and we can grieve the Spirit of God. That is, we can render the Spirit powerless by saying “yes” when we ought to say “no” and saying “no” when we ought to say “yes” to the Spirit. So Paul prays God would use all the resources at his command so that our inner man would be strengthened.
We are strengthened when someone comes alongside of us and gives us a word of encouragement. We are strengthened when we read God’s Word. We are strengthened when we memorize the Word. We are strengthened when we admit that we are weak for when we are honest with ourselves we allow God’s Spirit to work within us. We are strengthened when things within the church are going well; when good decisions are being made by our leaders. And, at times, we are strengthened by angels from heaven.
The next petition is closely related to the first one. Paul prays that God would dwell within our hearts. In one sense, of course, Jesus already dwells within our hearts. For those who know Christ, or rather, are known by Him, he has already made our heart his home. But Paul is not talking about a one-time experience that happened when Christ initially moved into our hearts.
He is talking about allowing Christ to dwell in our hearts fully. He’s talking about welcoming Christ into every room of our heart and allowing His Spirit to do a thorough cleaning of that room. To even rearrange it, if necessary, so that it is more pleasing to him. He’s talking about allowing Christ to be at home more and more within our hearts. In part, it is saying to Him what’s mine belongs to you. If you see anything that you think I should do something different with, or use differently, or get rid of, just let me know and it will be done immediately.

For example, and it is a minor one, we may be so hooked on a TV show that we don’t let anyone interrupt or disrupt that particular hour of the day. But one day Christ walks into that room and reminds us that people are more important than any TV program that is here today and gone tomorrow. He tells us that we’re allowing that particular program to excuse ourselves from meaningful conversation. He tells us that we’re putting that program above others, and especially above our relationship with Him. If Christ is going to dwell within our heart fully, if he is going to be comfortable in every room, we need to make some changes.

The third petition is that we may be so rooted and grounded in love, that we have the power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ. Here Paul chooses two metaphors, both of which emphasize depth as opposed to superficiality. He wanted the Ephesians, and us, to have deep roots and a firm foundation so that we could grasp the dimensions of God’s love.

It is wide enough to reach the whole world and beyond, it is long enough to stretch from eternity to eternity, it is high enough to raise both Jews and Gentiles to the heavenly realms, and it is deep enough to rescue people from the deepest depths of sin and degradation. It is a love that each of us have experienced to some degree for surely Paul is speaking experientially and not simply stringing some words together that sound philosophically nice.

W. A. Criswell, in his commentary on Ephesians took these four dimensions and applied them to the Bible’s golden verse, namely John 3:16. He wrote:
“ For God so loved the world (the breadth of it), that he gave his only begotton Son (the length to which God did go in His love for us), that whosoever believeth in him should not perish (the depths to which God reached) but have everlasting life (the height to which God raises us).”
Just as an aside, in this verse the Apostle John could have used any of three Greek words for “the world.” He could have used the word ge which refers to the planet earth. He didn’t use this word for obvious reasons. He could have used the word oikoumene which refers to the world of humanity. That would make sense, but he didn’t use it either. He used the word kosmos which refers to the entire universe. So the best way to translate the first part is “For God so loved the whole creation . . .”

The fourth petition is that we would be filled with the perfect fulness of God. Later on in Ephesians, 4:13, Paul speaks of attaining to the whole measure of the fulness of Christ.” So this petition probably means that the fullness of God, as seen played out in Christ, is to be our goal. This is maturity. If so, Paul prays that we will attain the goal of being Christ-like in a sin-soaked world.
Wow! Clearly Paul is petitioning great things on behalf of the recipients of this letter. So the thought may occur to any one of us that he is asking too much on our behalf. To those who are entertaining such a thought Paul concludes with these words: “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”

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