Ephesians 3:16-17: Paul Kneels and Asks

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. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,

Ephesians 3:16-17 (NIV)

Paul Kneels and Asks

“She’ll be fine, she’s had worse,” the man at the counter says, and he’s talking about a lizard. He buys crickets by the box and asks whether the calcium powder is the same one as last time, and somewhere in the middle of that he mentions his results came back Thursday and weren’t what he’d hoped for, and then he’s back on the crickets. He’s pleasant and quick, with a line ready for the girl ringing him up and a piece of bad news he carries out the door along with the box.

Before Paul asks God for anything here, he gets down on his knees. For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. Then he says what he’s asking for. Out of his glorious riches, that God may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.

He’s asking on behalf of people who already believe. A man on his knees is asking God to build strength into them somewhere nobody can look at, and then he asks a second time, that they would be rooted and established in love. Why do I find it so much harder to pray for that than to pray about a week?

The man with the crickets is rooted in whatever he’s rooted in. Nothing about him wants shoring up, because the outside is doing its job beautifully. He gets to his car, puts the box on the seat where he can keep an eye on it, and drives off into a perfectly ordinary afternoon.

Paul stays on his knees and asks again, out of God’s glorious riches, for strength in a place he’d never be able to check.