This past month we have been spending time in Ephesians chapter 3 surrounding the theme of surrender. Jesus invites us to surrender our lives to His power, love, and blessing so that we might experience the fullness of life that only His leadership can provide. Yet we often chafe at the idea of surrendering. We only see it as submitting or conceding rather than to stop resisting or struggling against the One who sees and knows us, our Father Creator. Today let’s look at verses 14 - 21, the section in its entirety.

 ‘When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen.’ 

- Ephesians 3:14 – 21

He was writing to the church at Ephesus and in part of the letter he pauses to pray this prayer for them. There is so much richness to this prayer by Paul! Can you sense his passion growing as he prays? Look at all he asked God for in this prayer:

God to empower with inner strength

For Christ to make his home in their hearts (as they trusted)

For their roots to grow into God’s love and keep them strong

That they would have the power to understand God’s love for them – how wide,

how long, how high and how deep.

For them to experience the love of Christ

To be made complete with life and power from God

And the ‘cream’ on the top – the glory to God – who is able through His work in us (that’s not just the believers in Ephesus, it’s directed to each of us as well)

This is such a beautiful picture of all that is available to us! All God wants us to know and embrace. This is the God to whom we surrender.

For Reflection:

1.  What gives you pause when you think about the idea of ‘surrender’?

2.  Write down the times in your life where you did surrender, willingly and unwillingly? Ask the Holy Spirit to bring to mind any                   experiences with surrender that have impacted your faith.

3.  How has this impacted your understanding of surrender to God in light of Ephesians 3?