Prayer for our church

What is your prayer for your church? If you, like Paul, were to sit down and write a letter to your church, explaining to its members your thoughts and dreams, and if you felt compelled at the end of that letter to write a prayer for your church, what would that prayer be?

I was reading Ephesians 3:14-22 this week, and I think I might want to steal Paul's prayer. I'm going to break it into pieces for this post, but the whole prayer in its entirety is quite beautiful, if you have time to read it.

Verses 14-17: For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.

Doesn't it sound to you like Paul is praying that the people at Ephesus will be made so strong in their faith that they will be able to touch their hearts and say, "I know. I am convinced that Christ dwells in me."? I want that for my church. I want the members to walk out of the building convinced that God was in church with them that day, and that they leave the fellowship to enter their week with the sure knowledge that God walks with them. I want that for them; I want that for me.

Verses 17-19: And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge -- that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

There's an old cliche that when Christ was asked how much he loved the world, he spread out his hands, and said, "This much." I would also pray that we would all know -- that we would grasp -- just how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ. I love that sentence, and I'm disappointed that I've never noticed it before. I just think that if we could "grasp" the hugeness of the love of God, then we would all be transformed, and so would the church.

Verses 20-21: 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.

To him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine.... Wow. I read today the story of the feeding of the 5000 and of Jesus walking on the water in John (John 6:1-21). In my tired brain, these two stories rammed into the prayer in Ephesians. I was struck by Andrew in the story, and how he stands in front on Jesus with a basket holding 5 SMALL loves and 2 SMALL fish -- convinced that this cannot possibly be enough. How often do I stand in church (metaphorically) holding a basket of small fish and small loaves, and say to myself, "This will never work. This is not possibly enough." I've said it somewhere before (and I got it from S), it is a failure of imagination. If we are doing the will of God, then we ought to know -- to realize -- that what we will always have "enough" to get the job done. I pray that I would realize, that we would realize, that He can do more than we can imagine -- and that our blessings and gifts are sufficient -- abundant -- overflowing for the tasks He has assigned us.

Jesus walked on water in the passage from John, and the disciples were surprised. Stunned. But then they believed. I'm all for surprises, but I pray that after God surprises us, we, as a church, we be able to say, "Wow! That was great! What's next?" instead of saying, "Jesus, you're dripping water in our boat."

May we KNOW the certain-ness of His presence, the infinite nature of His love and the abundance of His ability. Amen.