CHURCH PLANT FOUNDATIONS: PRAYING GOD'S WILL (PART III)

As we move towards planting a new church on Sunday nights for Wahroonga and the neighbouring communities, we do so mindful that we are dependant on God for all that is ahead of us.  Given that, what should we be praying?

Our next series of blogs are designed to lay at the foundation of this new church a wholehearted commitment to pray and to pray according to God's will.  The next 6 blogs will unpack Ephesians 3.14-21 and outline 6 aspects of being a church that prays God's will.

14 For this reason I kneel before the Father, 

15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. 

16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you 

with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 

17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. 

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

18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, 

to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 

19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—

that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. 

20 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, 

21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus 

throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

3 - Praying God's will means prayer that knows we are weak

As we come to the main part of the prayer in Ephesians 3, there is a reminder that on our own we are weak.

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 heart.

This prayer is for increased spiritual power to penetrate the depth of your beings – so that Christ would live not at the edges but at the very centre of your life. This is what it is to be strengthened in the Christian life.

On our own we are frail, we are broken, we are sinful, we are rebellious, we are proud we are weak, so we need the Holy Spirit to strengthen our inner being so that Christ may enter your heart, renovate your soul and make his home with your spirit.

This is the only place in the Bible that speaks of Christ dwelling in your heart. Our prayer for one another and for the church as a whole is that we get out of the driver’s seat and allow Christ to take control. So that his priorities are our priorities so that his destination is our destination.