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Another Prayer – To The Father; For Strength In The Inner Being; To Be Rooted And Established in Love; To Understand The Vast Love Of Messiah; To Help Us Reach Our Full Potential; Honoring God Who Is Able To Do Far More Than We Can Ask Or Imagine; Thankful That That Same Immeasurable Power Is Working In Us, Guaranteeing We Arrive At The Goal!

Paul prayed a couple of times earlier in this letter. Starting with verse 14, he prayed again. For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every 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 Messiah may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Messiah, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Paul’s prayer was motivated by a reason: For this reason – I kneel before the Father – the reason being that with the coming, life, death, resurrection, ascension of the Son of God, and the giving of the Spirit to those who know who the Three-In-One God and become loyal to the Father, Son and Spirit, the faithful remnant of Messianic Jews and Gentile Christians become part of the family of God. These honorable sons and daughters of God form a new unified humanity that has been reconciled to God and reconciled to each other. This family is full of peace and love and unity with the ancient division between Jew and Gentile gone forever. That’s a great reason to kneel before God the Father, giving Him thanks for creating this wonderful family, and asking Him to bless Paul’s brother and sisters!

For this reason I kneel: The Hebrew word for knee is berech. To kneel, to get down on your knees, is how we get the word barucha, which is a blessing. To bless God means to get down on your knees acknowledging His superiority. The idea is that we are lowering ourselves before the One who is higher and greater than we are. We are getting on our knees to acknowledge the superiority of the Creator.

For this reason I kneel before the Father. Notice that in keeping with his earlier prayers, the Lord’s divinely inspired representative directs his prayers to God the Father. Under the New Covenant, this is the normative way to address our prayers. The sons and daughters of God pray to God the Father, because of our connection with and the mediation of the Son, empowered to pray by the Spirit of the Father and the Son.

For this reason I kneel before the Father. God is not just the Creator, He is also a Father. What characterizes a father? Creation of children. Love for those children. Care for those children. If possible, an inheritance reserved for those children. God is a very good Father. He created each one of us. He loves us – intensely. He cares for us – deeply. And He has a great inheritance in store for us! The fatherhood of God is worth giving thanks for.

For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in Heaven and on Earth derives its name. There is a family in Heaven, made up of the sons of God – the good angels, and there are families on Earth made up of human beings. Messianic Jews and Gentile Christians are members of various earthly families, and through the Good News, we become part of a heavenly family – the family of God. We become the sons and daughters of God. The Father becomes our Father. The Son of God becomes our Eldest Brother. The other sons of God, the good angels, become our great allies.

For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in Heaven and on Earth derives its name. God has a name. In fact, He has a name above all names. He is HaShem – the Name, which means He is the Supreme Person with the Supreme Identity. He is the Most Unique One. And He created us in His image, giving each one of us a name, a unique identity. Our name, our unique identity is derived from God’s name, from God’s unique identity. He gave each one of us a unique identity, and He also gave us a family identity. If the family of the sons and daughters of God is to function the way God designed us to function, our identity must be firmly rooted in the fatherhood of God, firmly planted in a personal relationship with God the Father. I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in Heaven and on Earth derives its name.

Our earthly family forms a huge part of our identity. In a similar way, Rabbi Paul wanted the Ephesians to know that we are not spiritual orphans; understanding that God is our Father, and that all of us are part of His family, must be an essential part of our identity. We must constantly meditate on the fatherhood of God, look to Him as our Father, relate to Him as our Father, Creator, Provider, Protector and Rewarder. I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in Heaven and on Earth derives its name.

It’s nice to have a father who is well off. Well, our Heavenly Father is well off – very well off. He is fabulously wealthy, rich beyond our understanding. And Paul knew that our Father wants, out of those vast riches, to be very generous with His children, especially with His vast spiritual treasures. The Rabbi’s prayer continues: I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Messiah may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Messiah, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

The focus of Paul’s prayer, as with his earlier prayers, is not on material wealth, but on spiritual riches for Messiah’s Community. Under Messiah’s New Covenant, God promises to provide for our needs, to give us our daily bread, not our daily cake. Wealth and perfect health are not guaranteed to us in this life – but they will be given to each one of us one day – when we receive our inheritance in the New Jerusalem. Knowing this, Paul does not pray for material enrichment for the Messianic Jews and Gentile Christians in Ephesus. Instead he asks God the Father to bless them with great spiritual treasures.

The first spiritual treasure that Paul prayed that the Father would give them: that the Spirit of Messiah would powerfully live at the core of their innermost being so that they could be very close to Messiah. I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Messiah may dwell in your hearts through faith. The Rabbi doesn’t want them to have a shallow knowledge of Messiah, or a minimal kind loyalty to Messiah, or a life that reflects the values of the world rather than the values of Messiah. No, they are to have a profound knowledge of Messiah, and a very close relationship to Messiah. This happens through faith, by knowing who Messiah is and becoming loyal to Him.

Paul understood that Messiah is in a resurrected, glorified body, seated at the right hand of God. When he prayed that Messiah would live in their hearts, he is referring to the Spirit of the Messiah, the Holy Spirit that the Father and the Son share. Paul is praying that the Spirit of Messiah would be very close to them, thereby bringing Messiah very close to them; that the Spirit of the Son of God would teach them about Messiah; transform them into the likeness of Messiah; enable them to share the values and the priorities of the Messiah; empower them to live like Messiah and carry on the mission of the Messiah.

So, the first spiritual treasure that Paul prayed that the Father would give them: that the Spirit of Messiah would powerfully live at the core of their innermost being so that they could be very close to Messiah. The second spiritual treasure that Paul prayed that the Father would give them: that they would be able to know how much Messiah loves them so that they could receive everything God had for them. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Messiah, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

What is love? It’s the opposite of taking. It’s giving to the one you love. It’s caring. It’s concern. It’s the desire to see the one you love reach their potential. Love does not come naturally to fallen human beings. But, it comes naturally to God. His very nature is one of love. Paul is asking God that the faithful remnant of Messianic Jews and Gentile Christians become rooted and established in love – rooted, like a tree is rooted in good soil, so that it is able to grow strong and healthy so that it can produce much fruit; established in love, so that love would be the firm foundation of their lives – that their lives would be built on love – that they would understand the importance of love; that love would be in their minds and hearts and thoughts; that they would love the Three-In-One God, and love each other, and love fallen human beings who didn’t love them.

Only when we are rooted and established in love are we are able to catch a glimpse of the amount of love the Son of God has for us. Paul prayed that Messiah’s community in Ephesus, and also us, are able to grasp how immense is the love that Messiah has for us. I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Messiah, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge.

I pray that you, together with all the Lord’s holy people – and all the Lord’s holy, set apart people, includes us. So this great man of God is praying not just for the Ephesians, but specifically for us! I like that. I like Paul praying for me.

When things get difficult, some Christians and Messianic Jews question if God loves them. The answer is – He does. How much does God love us? More than we can possibly know; more than we could understand. God’s love for us is wider than the mighty oceans, longer than the Nile or the Amazon, the longest rivers; higher than the highest heavens, deeper than the Mariana trench, which is the deepest place on Earth. How much does God love us? Enough for the Son of God to leave the glories, honors and pleasures of Heaven; enough to limit Himself and become a man; enough to live among fallen, rebellious and sinful human beings; enough for the Creator to be rejected by His creatures, arrested, unfairly tried, beaten, tortured, shamed and crucified. That’s how much God loved us when we were His enemies! Think about how much love He has for us now that we are His beloved sons and daughters!

When we begin to understand how much the Son of God loves us – something great begins to happen to us – we are able to be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Because of the Fall, human beings are alienated from God. We are not comfortable thinking about God. When Adam and Eve heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, they ran away from God and hid from God. But love changes all that. Loves drives away fear. Love makes us feel safe. When we understand how much God loves us, we are able to open ourselves up to God, pursue God, seek God and not avoid God – in spite of our failures. Then, loved by God and close to God, and us trying to love Him back, we can become everything God intends for us to be. We can reach our maximum potential as the children of God – and that is a lot. We can experience all the spiritual blessings that God has for us. We can produce the good fruit, the good results and the good works that God has for us. I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Messiah, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

What a great prayer! The Rabbi from Tarsus really knew how to pray! But he also understood that no matter how well he prayed, the Lord was capable of responding far beyond the articulation of his best prayers. Paul concluded this prayer acknowledging that. 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 (the remnant of Messianic Jews and Gentile Christians called out of dying humanity) and in Messiah Yeshua throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. Our best prayers are limited. Our best thoughts, our greatest imaginations of what God can do, are too small. God is so great, so wise, so powerful that He is able to do far more than we can ask or even imagine!

Does He really have that much power? Yes. And, that same power is there for us, right now, working in us – saving us, helping us, transforming us, protecting us, empowering us, teaching us, guiding us. How can we fail? How can we not reach the goal? How can we not make it all the way to the New Jerusalem?

To Him be glory: Shouldn’t all those joined to the Messiah, the faithful remnant of Messianic Jews and Gentile Christians called out of dying humanity, respect God, honor God – with their thoughts, lives, words, service, sacrifices, actions? Isn’t He worthy of our respect, love, devotion, honor, service? Now, and forever? And, knowing this, shouldn’t we commit ourselves to bring this message to the whole world – to the Jewish people first, but also to the nations?

What a great prayer – to God the Father; for strength in the inner being; to be rooted and established in love; to understand the vast love of Messiah; to help us reach our full potential; honoring God who is able to do far more than we can ask or imagine; thankful that that same immeasurable power is working in us, guaranteeing we arrive at the goal!