I love it when God pulls all things together for me and ties them up in a bow…a field trip Friday, the writing of my blog, prepping for my Bible study, and the sermon Sunday morning!

Friday morning I couldn’t sleep, therefore since I was already up and had an appointment in Bethesda anyway, I went ahead and went to the Maryland side of Great Falls to take photos as the sun came up.

I posted a photo on Facebook, and realized that for people who don’t know Great Falls, they don’t know how big it is. Looking at the photo, it could be a stream…unless you look at the photo carefully and realize that the greenery on the opposite side is not bushes, but huge trees. You can also tell by the spray that is creating mist from where the water is crashing over the waves. But really, if you just look at it, it could just be a set of cascades. It is hard to get perspective.

What you see may or may not be what you get.

As our pastor said in the sermon Sunday morning, most people come to him to pray for them with physical needs. Very visible prayers. Prayers that impact people. Friday morning, if there had been a person on one of the rocks in the picture, you would have known the size of these falls. (Of course, these falls are so big you wouldn’t be able to SEE the person!) When something catastrophic happens to you or your family, you KNOW how big it is.

However, if the issue is about someone you don’t know, or more abstract, then it is easy to lose that perspective.

When we look at Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3, Paul shows us a really big prayer we should be praying. While this prayer is HUGE from an eternal perspective, since we don’t have a way to put it into perspective from a human standpoint, it is reduced in apparent significance.

But it is so big.

For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 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, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. 

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. (Eph. 3:14-21, NIV)

How could our lives be different if we KNEW the power and love of God? What if the power and love of God CRASHED through us like the water at Great Falls causing the mists of love and gentleness and kindness and truth and compassion to gently fall on everyone around us? It is easy to pray for the things we know, but since we don’t know how we would be impacted if we lived more fully in the power and love of God, we let the other prayers crowd this out.

I encourage you to pray this prayer for yourself, as well as for others. There is no way to overestimate the impact of God’s power and love on a life.