Staying Strong (Ephesians 3: 14-21)

This Podcast is part of a 10-year project to complete an in-depth, daily study of the entire Bible, chapter by chapter, verse by verse. 

Episode Notes:  Staying Strong (Ephesians 3: 14-21)

Welcome back, friends — it’s a joy to have you with me again as we continue our journey through Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. As we move into the second half of chapter 3, Paul does something beautiful and something deeply pastoral.

He prays.

Not strength for their bodies.

Not strong enough for their circumstances.

Not a strength for their finances or their health.

 But strength in their inner being.

 This is one of the most powerful prayers in all of Paul’s writings. It is a prayer for spiritual resilience and inner fortitude. As well as for a heart rooted in love and a life filled with the fullness of God.

Transcript

Staying Strong (Ephesians 3: 14-21)

 Authorised Transcript.

Welcome: 

 Welcome back, friends — it’s a joy to have you with me again as we continue our journey through Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. In our last episode, we explored how Paul avoided discouragement even while sitting in a Roman prison…. And now, as we move into the second half of chapter 3, Paul does something beautiful and something deeply pastoral.

He prays.

He pauses his teaching,

he pauses his explanation of the mystery; he even pauses his encouragement for a moment…and he kneels before the Father to pray for the strength of the believers in Ephesus.

Not strength for their bodies.

Not strong enough for their circumstances.

Not a strength for their finances or their health.

But strength in their inner being.

Strength that comes from the Spirit, a strength that anchors the soul, and a strength that keeps a believer steady when life is anything but steady.

This is one of the most powerful prayers in all of Paul’s writings. It is a prayer for spiritual resilience and inner fortitude. As well as for a heart rooted in love and a life filled with the fullness of God.

So, before we explore this extraordinary prayer together,

Let’s hear Paul’s words….

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.

(Ephesians 3:14–21.)

As I said, Paul begins this section with a prayer — a prayer that reveals what he believes Christians need most if they are going to stay strong in their faith.

He writes:

“I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being.”

(Ephesians 3:16)

As believers, we pray.

We pray for ourselves.

We pray for others.

We pray for our families, our churches, our communities.

And that is good and right and proper that we do that because that is biblical.

But if we’re honest, most of the prayer requests we hear in church

tend to focus on the physical and the practical.

We pray for those who are sick — and we should.

We pray for those who have financial needs — and we should.

We pray for those facing difficult circumstances — and we should.

We pray for Christians around the world — and we should.

There is nothing wrong with any of these prayers. They matter to God.

And they matter to us. They matter to the people we love.

But Paul’s prayer here invites us to consider something deeper.

Something we often overlook, even though we desperately need this thing. Something that may be even more important than the physical needs we so often bring before God.

Paul prays for inner strength. He prays that God would strengthen believers “with power through His Spirit

in the inner being.”

Not the outer being, the physical body, and not even the circumstances around us. In this example, he prays for our “inner being”.

The place where faith lives. The place where fear sometimes presses in and the place where discouragement settles. But it is also the place where hope can rise and where Christ dwells.

Paul is saying Before you pray for anything else, pray for this.

Pray for strength on the inside.

Pray for the Spirit to fortify your heart.

Pray for the kind of strength that circumstances cannot shake.”

And this is not the first time Paul prays this way.

Back in chapter 1, Paul’s first prayer was that believers would understand spiritual truth and that “the eyes of their hearts would be enlightened”.

Now, in chapter 3, his second prayer is that believers would be strengthened spiritually and that their hearts would be fortified.

This is showing us something important. That understanding truth is essential but having the strength to live that truth is equally essential.

Knowledge without strength leads to frustration.

Strength without knowledge leads to confusion.

But when the Spirit gives us both. Clarity of truth and strength of heart, we become resilient, rooted, steady, and strong.

Paul pauses his letter here because he knows the Ephesians need this…. And so do we.

Before we talk about anything else …we need to talk about inner strength. Because if the inner being collapses, everything else collapses with it.

And so Paul kneels and he prays and he begins his prayer with these words:

“For this reason, I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name.”

(Ephesians 3:14–15)

In the ancient world, kneeling was not the normal posture for prayer. Most Jews prayed standing. Kneeling was reserved for moments of deep emotion, deep reverence, deep dependence.

Kneeling is the posture of surrender. Kneeling is the posture of humility, and it is the posture of a heart that knows it cannot stand in its own strength.

This tells us that heaven and earth are not two families — they are one. Some of God’s children have already been called home. Some of us are still on our earthly journey. But all belong to the same Father.

And Paul kneels before that Father to pray for the strength of His children.

In praying for inner strength, we are praying for the kind of strength that only the Spirit can give. 

Why? Because the greatest struggles of the Christian life are not external, they are internal. The battle is not first fought in the world around us, but in the world within us.

Discouragement begins in the inner being. Fear begins in the inner being. Temptation begins in the inner being. Weariness begins in the inner being. Doubt begins in the inner being.

So prays for strength where strength is most needed and notice where this strength comes from:

“Out of God’s glorious riches through His Spirit into your inner being.”

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This is not human strength. This is not willpower. This is not self‑help or positive thinking. This is divine strength flowing from the riches of God through the Spirit of God into the heart of the child of God.

This is a strength that circumstances cannot shake. This is a strength that suffering cannot steal. This is a strength that temptation cannot break. This is a strength that discouragement cannot drain…. And this is the strength Paul wants for every believer.

It continues:

“…So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.”

(Ephesians 3:17a)

At first glance, this seems strange.

Doesn’t Christ already dwell in the heart of every believer? Didn’t Paul already say in chapter 2 that Christ lives in us?

Yes — but here Paul uses a different word. The word “dwell” here does not mean “to be present.” It means to settle down and to make oneself at home. To take up permanent residence and to live comfortably and fully.

It is the same word Jesus used in John 14, where it says, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.”

So this is praying not simply that Christ would be in us, but that Christ would be at home in us.

And there is a difference.

A guest may be in your house, but that doesn’t mean they feel at home. Christ dwells in every believer, but He is not at home in every believer. 

What makes Him uncomfortable?

Unrepented sin. Hidden sin. Unresolved bitterness. Secret habits. 

Compromised choices. A divided heart…. These things do not remove Christ from us, but they make Him feel unwelcome. They make Him feel like a guest rather than the homeowner.

The prayer we find here is that Christ would feel completely at home in us and that our hearts would be a place where He delights to dwell.

We need this inner strength because only inner strength can resist the pressures of the world that push us toward compromise.

Young people particularly face peer pressure. Adults face workplace pressure. Leaders face political pressure. All believers face spiritual pressure.

And only a strong inner being can withstand outer pressure. Only a heart strengthened by the Spirit can remain a home where Christ feels welcome.

We are then told the reason why this inner strength matters so much:

“And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love…” (Ephesians 3:17b)

Paul uses two metaphors:

Rooted — like a tree

Established — like a building

A tree without roots is blown over by the wind. A building without a foundation collapses under pressure, and this  is saying: “You cannot stand strong unless you are rooted and grounded in the love of Christ.”

Not rooted in your performance. Not rooted in your feelings. Not rooted in your circumstances. Not rooted in your achievements. Not rooted in your reputation…. Rooted in love.

The love of Christ is the soil in which the Christian life grows, and the love of Christ is the foundation on which the Christian life stands. Without that love, we are unstable. We are fragile and we are easily shaken.

With that love, we are steady, we are resilient and we can be unshakeable.

Paul continues:

“…that you 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…” (Ephesians 3:18)

Paul is praying for something that cannot be measured with a ruler or contained in a definition. He is praying that we would grasp the vastness of Christ’s love.

How wide — wide enough to include every person

How long — long enough to last for eternity

How high — high enough to lift us to heaven

How deep — deep enough to reach the lowest sinner

Christ’s love is not one‑dimensional. It is not shallow. It is not fragile. It is not conditional. 

It is vast. It is eternal. It is immeasurable. It is unchanging. And Paul says: “You need power to grasp this.”

Why?

Because the human mind cannot comprehend it. The human heart cannot contain it. The human experience cannot exhaust it.

This is why he adds: “…and to know this love that surpasses knowledge…” (Ephesians 3:19a)

This is a beautiful paradox. He wants us to know what cannot be fully known. He wants us to experience what cannot be fully explained. He wants us to taste what cannot be fully described.

The love of Christ is not a concept to study; it is a reality to experience.

And the more we experience it, the stronger we become.

This section ends with a breathtaking phrase: “…that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3:19b)

This is the climax of the prayer.

Paul is praying that believers would be strengthened by the Spirit, indwelt by Christ, rooted in love and grasping the dimensions of Christ’s love.… so that they might be filled with the fullness of God.

This does not mean we become divine. It means we become mature.

It means we can become complete. It means we can become everything God intends His children to be.

It means the character of God is formed in us.

It means the presence of God fills us and the love of God flows through us…. This is the goal of the Christian life — not simply to be saved, but to be filled.

Not simply to believe, but to become.

Not simply to survive, but to be strong.

This prayer piles image upon image, metaphor upon metaphor, to help us grasp the magnitude of what he is praying for.

He says believers are to be:

Rooted like a tree.

Grounded like a building.

Strengthened like a warrior.

Filled like a vessel.

All of it so that we might begin to comprehend the vastness of the love of God and see:

How wide, how long, how high, and how deep the love of Christ truly is.

These are not poetic flourishes. They are spiritual realities of His love. 

Deep enough to reach us in the lowest places, deep enough to descend into the darkest corners of our lives, deep enough to lift us from the pit of our own depravity.

But also, the height of that love. High enough to raise us to the heavenly realms, high enough to seat us with Christ, high enough to give us a destiny beyond this world.

But the breadth of His love. Wide enough to embrace the whole world, wide enough to include every tribe, nation, and tongue, wide enough to gather all people into one family.

Paul wants us to grasp this love — not intellectually, but experientially.

Unity in Christ is not uniformity, but oneness.

Paul’s vision of unity is not a flattening of culture, nor a blending of nations, nor a loss of identity.

Unity in Christ is not achieved by making everyone look the same, dress the same, or worship the same way.

For centuries, Western missionaries sometimes assumed that to become a Christian meant to become Western, but that was never Christ’s intention.

Christ did not come to create one earthly culture. He came to create one heavenly people. 

He came to form:

Indian Christians

African Christians

Asian Christians

Middle Eastern Christians

European Christians …each retaining their God‑given cultural identity, yet united in Christ. 

The unity Christ brings is not external uniformity but internal transformation.

It is unity rooted in a shared faith and a shared salvation. It is grants us all shared access to the Father, shared indwelling of the Spirit and a shared likeness to Christ.

This unity transcends race, class, culture, and background. It produces men and women who are not only friends with each other, but friends with each other because they are friends with God.

When believers gather from any nation, any culture, any background, they meet as people who have been granted equal access to the same 

Father through the same Son by the same Spirit, and this is the unity this prayer is praying for. 

“…to know this love that surpasses knowledge…” (Ephesians 3:19)

How do you know something that surpasses knowledge?

How do you grasp something that cannot be grasped?

How do you measure something that cannot be measured?

This prayer asks that we would experience what cannot be fully explained. That we would taste what cannot be fully described and that we would encounter what cannot be fully understood.

This is why spiritual maturity matters, because immature believers cannot fully understand the love of God. Not because they are unintelligent, but because their spiritual capacity is still developing. Because we would need to grow to the point where we can receive a deeper revelation of God’s love.

Many people struggle to understand love because they have never truly experienced it.

Some grew up in homes where love was conditional. Some were raised by parents who were distant or harsh. Some were wounded by relationships that betrayed them. Some were shaped by environments where affection was rare and affirmation was absent.

When you have never been loved well, it is hard to believe that God loves you perfectly. Paul knows this. And so he prays: “Lord, strengthen them. Strengthen their hearts. Strengthen their inner being. Strengthen their capacity to receive Your love.”

Because spiritual maturity is not measured by how much you know, but by how deeply you are rooted in the love of God.

This prayer reaches its climax: “…that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3:19)

This is breathtaking… because it prays that believers would be so strengthened, so rooted, so grounded, so saturated in the love of Christ that they become filled with the fullness of God.

Many believers are not full of the love of God. How do we know?

Because of what comes out of their mouths. Jesus said:

“Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.”

When believers gossip, criticise, grumble, or tear each other down, it reveals a heart not yet filled with the fullness of God.

Gossip is not a personality trait. It is a spiritual deficiency.

Criticism is not a preference. It is a symptom.

Grumbling is not harmless. It is evidence that the love of God has not yet filled the heart.

Because only a heart full of God’s love can overflow with love for others.

The Doxology — God’s Power, God’s Glory, God’s Work

Paul ends this section with one of the greatest doxologies in Scripture:

“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)

This is a way of saying that everything we pra for — God is able to do it. And not just do it, and do more than you can imagine.”

God can strengthen you. God is able to root you in love. God is able to fill you with His fullness. God is able to make Christ at home in your heart. God can mature you. God can transform you, and God is able to keep you strong… And He does it by His power

God is not merely able to answer prayer. He is able to go beyond prayer. Beyond what we ask. Beyond what we think to ask. Beyond what we dare to ask. Beyond what we can even imagine asking.

We pray within the limits of our understanding. God answers according to the riches of His glory.

We pray according to our need. God answers according to His power.

We pray according to our imagination. God answers according to His infinite ability.

Whatever you think God can do… He can do more.

Let me share a personal family story that gives a picture of God’s abundance.

Let me share a story from my own family that captures something of 

Around 1925, an advertisement appeared in the Belfast Telegraph:

“Wanted: a strong lad to be a delivery boy.” It was for a shop called Henderson’s Grocery Store on the Antrim Road in Belfast. Mr. Henderson, a small, plump, bald man with a magnificent curly moustache popular in that era and he interviewed applicants.

The first young man came in and asked all the usual questions:

“What are the wages?”

“What are the hours?”

“What days off do I get?”

“Will you provide a bicycle? I don’t want to use my own bike to carry all those heavy groceries.”

The first candidate seemed interested — but only if the job met his terms.

An hour later, another boy walked in. A 14‑year‑old named Ronnie McCandless — my father walked in.

What Mr. Henderson didn’t know was that Ronnie’s father had just died. At fourteen, he now found himself the head of the family and he had to give up his own dreams as he was now the only potential wage earner for his widowed mother and his younger brothers, Desmond (8) and Norman (10).

He had left school to find work to support them.

Mr. Henderson asked:

“Don’t you want to know the hours?”

“No,” my father said. “I just want the job.”

“Don’t you want to know the wages?”

“No. I just want the job.”

“Don’t you want to know if I’ll supply a bicycle?”

“No. I’m saving for one. I’ll deliver on foot if I have to.”

Mr. Henderson looked at him and said:

“You can have the job. And yes — I’ll supply the bicycle. And you can  ride it home every evening, and use it on Sundays.”

My father asked for nothing. He received more than he imagined.

God is like that — but infinitely more so.

He can do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine.

That story appears in a book called Farewell to the Hammer, the autobiography of Belfast journalist John Young Simms — and it has stayed with me all my life.

That young man grew up to be director of a huge worldwide Christian Missionary society, called the Leprosy Mission, and in his later years he was honoured by both the church and the Queen.

Because ultimately it reminds me of this truth.

God gives more than we ask and more than we think to ask and, “To Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” (Ephesians 3:21)

Throughout all generations.

That includes the Ephesians. That includes the early church. That includes the persecuted church. That includes the church today. 

That includes you. And it includes me.

This prayer — this strength, this love, this fullness, this power, this God who does immeasurably more — is for our generation too.

Because He is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine.

OUTRO:

As we close today’s episode, my prayer for you is simple:

May you be strengthened in your inner being. May Christ feel at home in your heart. May you grasp the vastness of His love. May you be filled with the fullness of God. And may you trust that He can do immeasurably more than you could ever ask or imagine.

In our next episode, we move into Ephesians chapter 4 with a message called: “Walking Worthy.”

Paul is going to show us how to live out this strength, this love, this maturity in the everyday rhythms of life… 

Until then, may the Lord bless you and keep you strong in His love.