That Christ Might Dwell

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 (Ephesians 3:16-17).   The letter to the Ephesians is steeped in prayer. Paul begins with prayer, ends by calling the church to join him in prayer, and here in the middle, prays. As we discovered yesterday, Paul is on his knees in this prayer. It's a posture of humility, recognizing that God is both the giver of every good gift, and the most consequential actor and authority in any of our lives. Today we begin to discover what Paul is praying for.  All these big themes have been coursing through the letter about God's grace in Christ that creates the world, saves us, and reconciles us as a disparate humanity into a single, diverse, yet unified church.  Now Paul prays quite simply that we will have the faith to believe it's true.  That we will have the power, not to do great things for God, but simply to hold space in our hearts for Christ to dwell there.  Paul is on to something.  This is indeed the very hardest of things to do. It is easy to do great deeds for God.  Go on a mission trip, fund a building campaign, make a big and vocal stand on principle, start an organization, or make pilgrimage to a big Christian site, rally, conference, or retreat.  The extreme things are all pretty easy to do—we just go flat out, push ourselves to the end, and voila, there we are.  What is much harder to do is to simply believe. Our inner beings are often not strong enough to hold space for this Christ and this faith.  Our innermost being is most often filled with anxiety for the future, our children, our health, our work, the church, our country, and the state of the world.  Fear, cynicism, mistrust, jealousy, fears, ambivalence, regret, and despondency are far more often what lines the walls of our inner being than the strength of the Spirit and faith in Christ. So many of the things we hear or watch seem to suggest that this world and our lives are quite beyond hope or salvation.  How then can we rest in any assurance that all these good words Paul has preached thus far can be true? Left to ourselves, we can't.  Faith is a gift of God.  Paul knows this and so he cuts his proofs and proclamations short to get down on his knees and pray that the God who has begun this good work in Christ will see it through to completion in us.  He prays that our inner being might be strengthened by God himself through the power of the Spirit, that our hearts might be made ready to house a true faith in Christ.  Even more: to house Christ himself. Today as we read these words of Ephesians 3—we join that prayer.  May God indeed dispel the shadows of fear and mistrust within us, strengthening us instead to be people of faith in whom Christ makes his home.   As you journey on, go with the blessing of God:   Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. (Ephesians 3:20-21)