Ephesians: The Prayer

Listen in as we look at Ephesians 3:14-21 and see Paul's prayer for God's people.

Quotes/Cross references: 

Opening quote from the gathering:

"Worship works from the top down, you might say. In worship we don’t just come to show God our devotion and give him our praise; we are called to worship because in this encounter God (re)makes and molds us top-down. Worship is the arena in which God recalibrates our hearts, reforms our desires, and rehabituates our loves. Worship isn’t just something we do; it is where God does something to us. Worship is the heart of discipleship because it is the gymnasium in which God retrains our hearts.” - James K.A. Smith

Ephesians 3:14-21

“He does not ask much of us, merely a thought of Him from time to time, a little act of adoration, sometimes to ask for His grace, sometimes to offer Him your sufferings, at other times to thank Him for the graces, past and present, He has bestowed on you, in the midst of your troubles to take solace in Him as often as you can. Lift up your heart to Him during your meals and in company; the least little remembrance will always be the most pleasing to Him. One need not cry out very loudly; He is nearer to us than we think.” - Brother Lawrence, Practice of the Presence of God

"The modern loss of faith does not concern just God or the hereafter. It involves reality itself and makes human life radically fleeting. Life has never been as fleeting as it is today. Not just human life, but the world in general is becoming radically fleeting. Nothing promises duration or substance. Given this lack of Being, nervousness and unease arise." - Byung-Chul Han - The Burnout Society

Prov 4:23

“The reach of a tree depends on its roots. Choose roots over reach." - Karen Swallow Prior

"Could we with ink the ocean fill,
  And were the skies of parchment made;
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
  And every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above
  Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
  Though stretched from sky to sky." - Fredrick Lehman

"The sin underneath all our sins is to trust the lie of the serpent that we cannot trust the love and grace of Christ and must take matters into our own hands” ― Martin Luther

John 3:16-17

"Jesus is a teacher who doesn’t just inform our intellect but forms our very loves. He isn’t content to simply deposit new ideas into your mind; he is after nothing less than your wants, your loves, your longings…Jesus’s command to follow him is a command to align our loves and longings with his—to want what God wants, to desire what God desires, to hunger and thirst after God and crave a world where he is all in all—a vision encapsulated by the shorthand “the kingdom of God.” - James K.A. Smith, You Are What You Love

1 John 3:1

“Prayer does not (merely) equip us for greater works, Prayer is the greater work.” Oswald Chambers

“If you have never known the power of God’s love, then maybe it is because you have never asked to know it - I mean, really asked, expecting an answer.” Fredrick Buechner.

"I will let myself not be overwhelmed with the season, but be overwhelmed with the goodness of God, so I can then overflow with the goodness of God to others. I will be experienced as a blessing by others, to the extent I have slowed down — and counted blessings — and first experience myself as blessed. The greatest gift God graces a soul with is His own presence.” - Ann Voskamp