Ben Fourie

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work in us, to him be glory …” Ephesians 3:20 (NIV)

Very early in his ministry Jesus taught us about prayer and showed us in the Our Father prayer to use plain everyday language. When we pray it is not the time for using high-falutin words and inflections to try and impress God and other people listening to us. Although what I have said here is true in most cases, I also have heard beautiful prayers that sounds more like a poem in praise of God. Many of the psalmists offered their prayers as a poem or song to the Lord and that is also what Paul did in this prayer for the Ephesians.

At school under guidance of our language teacher we had to take a poem and analise it in detail to try and understand what the poet meant by it. Most of the time I found this very frustrating as the whole poem usually lost it magical impact when dissected like a frog in the biology laboratory. Although the prayer of Paul can be read purely for the beauty of the words and sound it is best to, like with the entire Bible, analise it to find what message God wants to bring to our attention.

The prayer is so rich in meaning that one should take time to read and reread it. I just want to highlight a few thoughts. Paul's words in verse 18 always make me think of the God's love for us as a cube. Far, high, wide, yes three dimensional, and with the love of Jesus for me an all encompassing protective space where I can live in peace and safety. It reminds us of the New Jerusalem as depicted in Revelation 21 where the angel measures the city and finds the length, breath and height exactly the same, the perfect cube of God. His love in all directions and his omnipotence is so great that my little brain can never understand it. Even if I harness all my brain power and all my prayer power, God can do so much more than I can think or imagine. Paul knows this and can only conclude with: “to him be glory …”

Prayer: Lord help me to understand that what I have is by your grace alone. Thank you that I can hide safely in you space of grace. Amen