SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/4/2019
9:57 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-4 “The Spirits Power”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ephesians
3:14-16
Message of the verses: “14 For this reason
I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on
earth derives its name, 16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of
His glory, to be strengthened
with power through His Spirit in the inner man,”
In
our last SD we began looking at verse sixteen and now we want to continue
commenting on this verse.
Let
us focus in on something that once you think about for a bit will become
something that will be difficult to actually understand. In verse sixteen we read from the NLT “I pray
that from his glorious, unlimited
resources He will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit.” Notice the highlighted part, especially “unlimited
resources.” If a person with a great
deal of money would give to a charity $25.00 they would be given it out of
their wealth, but if a millionaire gave say, $25,000 then they would be giving
it according to His wealth. Now For God
to give according to His unlimited resources is absolutely staggering, because
His unlimited wealth are limitless, they are completely without bounds! But that is exactly what this verse says that
is it is exactly the measure by which Paul implores God to empower to the
Ephesians. Like I said this is mind boggling.
John
MacArthur writes “Almost every prayer of Paul’s that is recorded in Scripture
was for the spiritual welfare of others.
Even when he was persecuted, imprisoned, and in need of many things for
his own welfare, he prayed primarily for fellow believers that they might be
spiritually protected and strengthened.
Even when he prayed for himself it was most often for the purpose of
being better able to serve his Lord and the Lord’s people. Later in this letter the apostle asked the
Ephesians to ‘pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the
opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel’
(6:19).”
Philippians
1:9-10 is another example of Paul’s prayer along these lines “9 And this I
pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all
discernment, 10 so that you may approve
the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the
day of Christ.” Next we look at
Colossians 1:9-11 “9 For this reason also, since the day we heard of it,
we have not ceased to pray
for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will
in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so that you will walk in a manner
worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in
every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 strengthened with all power,
according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and
patience; joyously.” [Being powered with
all power is what this literally means.]
There are others to look at like Phil. 1:4 and also 1 Thessalonians 1:2.
John
MacArthur adds “Prayer is to be a constant effort of our daily living. Jesus said, ‘Keep on the alert at all times,
praying in order that you may have strength’ (Luke 21:36). Paul often mentioned that he prayed
continually for others (Eph. 1:16; Phil 1:4; Col. 1:3, 9) and repeatedly
encouraged others to do the same (Rom. 12:12; Eph. 6:18; Col 4:2; cf. Phil.
4:6). At least two of Jesus’ parables
focus on persistent prayer—the parable of the man who knocks on his neighbor’s
door at midnight asking for food to give an unexpected guest (Luke 11:5-10) and
the parable of the importunate widow who eventually obtained help from a wicked
judge because she refused to stop petitioning him (Luke 18:1-8).”
In
our next SD I want to quote a story from MacArthur’s commentary about a friend
of Luther, as we continue looking at this wonderful prayer that Paul prays for
the Ephesians, and in turn prayed for us too, that is all true believers in
Jesus Christ.
Spiritual meaning for my life: Praying is a big part of my walk with the
Lord as I have a prayer list that in some places stays the same, and in other
places on it continues to change. My son
has really not been happy in any of the jobs that he has had since he graduated
from college. There have been three jobs
for him, and I could tell that he was not really happy in the one he had and it
saddened me greatly. I prayed as
specific prayer for him for the last couple of months as I knew that only God
could put David in a job that he would be satisfied in. I talked to him on Friday and he told me that
he had gotten another job and once he told me about the job it was exactly what
I had been praying about. God is so
good, as He knew that my heart was breaking over the fact that my son was not
happy in his job and led me to pray for him so that He would find the exact job
that He had for him to take.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Continue to
pray and to realize that God through His Spirit has given me great power in my spiritual
walk with the Lord.
Scripture that goes with yesterdays
quote: Proverbs 11:14 “Where there is no
counsel, the people fall; but in the multitude of counselors there is safety.”
2/4/2019 10:38 AM
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