Prime the Pump

Very few people today have ever seen a manual pump – the kind with the handle that you had to pump before you could get water. Some of these pumps had a tendency to dry out between uses so you had to keep some water handy to pour into the pump before you could get water out. This is called “priming the pump.” Without the priming, you could pump all day and never see a drop of water. With priming, the water started to flow after just a few pumps on the handle.

I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will give you mighty inner strength through his Holy Spirit. And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God's marvelous love. 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 really is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it. Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from God.
Ephesians 3:16-19 (NLT)

Paul was not only an apostle, an evangelist, and a teacher; he was also a prayer warrior. He understood the power of prayer and his responsibility as a Christ-follower to “pray without ceasing.” In this passage, Paul prays for the church at Ephesus, even thought he is suffering the pain and torment of prison. As he writes this letter, he describes to us the prayers he lifts up. The verse prior to this passage says, “When I think about the wisdom and scope of God’s plan, I fall to my knees.” This passage tells us that Paul didn’t just bow before God; he was led to lift up his brothers and sisters in Christ.

The sequence of Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians bears examination. First of all he prays that the church would receive “mighty inner strength” through the Holy Sprit. Paul knew that living the Christian life was not a walk in the park. Sometimes it is difficult to stand up for what you believe in the face of persecution. Once one has this inner strength, Paul says that we should start cleaning our house. As Christians, we have a houseguest in our innermost being. Jesus Christ in the person of the Holy Spirit lives in our hearts. Paul is telling us that we need to get rid of all those things in our lives that make Jesus uncomfortable. In other words, we need to confess those sins we have been trying to hide for so long. We should be a house that Jesus feels at home in.

As the Holy Spirit is given freedom in our lives to teach us the deeper truths of the Christian life, we begin to understand just how much God loves us. His love is so wide that there is not a place on this earth or a situation that we can get ourselves in that He is not already there. It is so long that it we can never deplete it. It is so deep that it can touch the depths of our souls and pull us from the deepest pit. God’s love is so high that it reaches into Heaven itself and it is so deep that it touches the very depths of our souls and can pull us from the deepest pit in which the Devil tries to throw us. The love of God is amazing. Paul prays that we will experience this amazing love, even though it is something that we will never understand this side of Haven.

As a result of this increased understanding of our position in Christ, Paul tells us that we will be able to live a life filled with the power of God. What an incredible promise! We will be so energized that, through the power with which we have been filled, we will be able to do all the things that God has planned for us in this life. Nothing will be beyond our ability to accomplish. That is what God has for those who follow His plan.

Church, where are we in the sequence of God’s plan for us? Are we “filled with life and power”? Maybe we have just begun to experience the love of Christ. Could it be that we have yet to appropriate the “power to understand” the scope of God’s love? If not, have we at least cleaned our house so that Jesus would feel at home in it? Surely we have gotten to the point that we have tapped into the unlimited resources of God to receive the inner strength to start this process. Think about it. Our ability to be the light and salt this world needs depends on our position in God’s plan.

We serve an awesome God!!!!!

Say to wisdom, "You are my sister,"
and call insight your intimate friend,
Proverbs 7:4