Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Ephesians 3:14-17 For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ . . . that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.
GOD'S TREASURE BOX
Paul not only prayed for the Christians in Ephesus, he also informed them what he had requested. He had asked God to strengthen them with might according to the riches of His glory.
In the Greek, the "riches" of His glory refers to the abundant amount of God's glory. Imagine a huge treasure box filled with gold and jewels. There's so much piled inside this box that the coins are falling out. And no matter how much you try, you can't get them all to stay in. Soon gold is strewn from one end of the room to the other, but the treasure keeps pouring out.
Paul wanted the Ephesians to be strengthened in a big way. Of course Paul wasn't speaking of muscle strength, he was speaking of spiritual strength. Paul says that this spiritual strengthening would come through the working of the Holy Spirit in the inner man of the Ephesian Christians, that Christ might dwell in their hearts through faith.
Does this message seem redundant? Have you heard this before: Christ is the greatest gift ever given? As sinful humans we easily undervalue the things which are most precious in life. And so it is with the gift of Christ. Because salvation through Christ is completely free, we sometimes treat it like it's cheap. May this never happen. Instead, let's place Christ at the center of our lives like the jewel that He is. And let's pass Him down to our children like a precious heirloom we have received from our Father.
