This prayer from Paul makes me realize how important it is for me to give up control of my life. We know how easy it is to feel we know what is best for us and the more goals we have the better, but I say as we trust in Him and live by His decrees the stronger we get. Paul’s prayer says, “I pray that from His glorious unlimited resources He will empower you with inner strength.” His resources are unlimited, at best ours are marginal. Verse 17 says, “…your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong.” It is not ourselves that will keep us strong it is God’s love.
Think of those nasty weeds in the yard, some the roots are twice as long as the weeds themselves. Well those ones are hard to pull out. When we trust in the Lord and our roots grow down deep in His love we know how to react to this world’s temptations and we know that God is in control. I think of the parable of the scattered seed in Matthew chapter 13 verse 8 which says, “Still other seeds fell on fertile soil, and they produced a crop that was thirty, sixty, and even a hundred times as much as had been planted!”
The roots grow healthy in fertile soil and so does our trust in the Lord. The more we trust in the Lord the stronger our roots and the stronger our roots the less we lead and the more the Spirit leads us. Verse 19 is incredible to think about; really look at what it says, “May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and the power that comes from God.” Our lives can be complete here even with satan doing all he can to deceive us. We just need to let go of the reigns and ask, seek, and knock so we can continue to grow.
I love transformation stories and Paul’s is incredible, but we all have one if we truly believe in Christ. Warren Wiersbe made these two statements and I think they are so right on. First he said, “We inherit the wealth by faith and invest the wealth by works. Without this balance, our spiritual riches do us no good.” And secondly, “If the world can’t see anything different in our lifestyles before Christ and after Christ, the problem isn’t with Christ-it’s with us.” Let’s open our hearts and let the Spirit lead us to a changed life that glorifies God. Amen