May 21stPractice Resurrection (4)
Text: Ephesians 3.14-21
‘I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses all knowledge, so that you may be filled with the fullness of God.’ [Ephesians 3.18-20]
‘We must relearn the essential truth that Christian prayer is rather like cleaning a car. When we are lucky enough to have a new one we wash and polish away with enthusiastic fervor, it is a devotional job. When the novelty wears off it becomes rather a nuisance and rather a bore, but we can still clean it efficiently, and here is the one vital point: there is no difference whatever in the results.’ [Martin Thornton]
Prayer, says Eugene Peterson, is the cradle language of the church, our mother tongue. It seems no surprise that Ephesians, Paul’s churchiest letter is composed, at least for the first three chapters, almost as one long series of prayers. From the blessing to God to the blessings from God that we receive, this is prayer: bold and unafraid, petition and praise, gratitude and grace in all their fullness.
I invite you to ponder deeply these verses. Take your time, go slow, savour and reflect on what you read and what the Spirit says to you.
Questions for Reflection
1 Why is prayer so difficult for you? Or… why is it so easy for you?
2 Peterson says: ‘Prayer is a deliberate walking away from a ‘me-centered life to a Christ-centered life.’ Why might that be important? [Practicing Resurrection, 162]
3 Our poverty, paraphrasing Paul, is nothing compared to God’s abundance. How might such a belief enrich your prayer life?
PRAYER: ‘Spirit of the living God, fall a-fresh on me. Melt me, mold me, fill me, use me. Spirit of the living God, fall a-fresh on me.’ Amen [HWB 349]