Articles

What do we Expect?

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:14-19)

Few of us as Christians experience the fullness of God’s spiritual blessings in the heavenly places (Eph. 1:3). A friend recently asked me: why don’t we, and how do we get there?

I think that most of us can’t begin to imagine how just how abundantly God wants to bless us, and so we neither expect nor look for that blessing. That is why Paul prays earnestly — bowing himself to the ground in fervent petition — that the brothers and sisters in Ephesus would have the strength to comprehend the power and fullness that is theirs in Christ. Clearly, they don’t begin to understand, and it will take a miracle of God to open their eyes — hence Paul’s prayer.

We see not because we look not. We receive little because we expect little.

But those who devote themselves to discovering all God has for them in Jesus Christ, by reading carefully and thoughtfully, over and over, pregnant texts in the Bible, will discover the Holy Spirit opening their eyes to riches unimaginable. It will cause their spirits to soar, and their hearts to be filled with joy and gratitude!

Are you searching scripture expectantly?