In Christ: Know It, Live It - 18 (Not Satisfied)

"I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers..." Ephesians 1:16

The Apostle Paul has heard of the faith and love of the Ephesian saints...they ARE true believers. He is THANKFUL for that. What glory! These who should have been blasted by God's just wrath have been blessed from eternity by God's gracious choice of them to be His very own children. It is such a glorious truth that Paul CAN'T STOP giving thanks for them. He is thankful for God's choice of them and their faith in Christ and their love for all the saints.

I hope you are still finding a never ceasing thanks in your heart to God for His saving you. I hope that you are regularly thankful for your FAITH in Christ, because it is the GIFT of God (Ephesians 2:9). I pray that God has given you a living faith that extends out to others, that is BIGGER all the time in terms of whom it embraces. And I pray that you are thankful to God for every time He empowers you to love someone else instead of yourself. What a divine miracle.

May God's grace enable us to NEVER GET OVER what He has done for us in Christ.

But this great salvation is NOT THE END OF IT. There's more. In Christ there is ALWAYS MORE.

Not only does Paul give thanks to God for the Ephesians' faith and love, He also keeps remembering them in PRAYER. He PRAYS for them to KEEP ON GROWING in faith and love. He is thankful that they KNOW God...HE now prays (vv.17-19) that they would KNOW HIM MORE!

Paul is NOT SATISFIED with the glory of their salvation and the clear evidence of it. He wants MORE for them. He wants them to KNOW God more deeply as the God who has called them to HOPE, who has made them His INHERITANCE, and who works in them and on their behalf with IMMEASURABLY GREAT POWER (prayer of vv.17-19).

Let us NOT be satisfied, either. Let us not neglect to be thankful always for our great salvation. But let us CRY out to God daily for MORE, the MORE He has promised us and purchased for us in Christ. Let's PRAY for everyone on our prayer list who knows Christ to keep progressing towards knowing Him more clearly and deeply.

We will look at this great prayer in the days ahead, Lord willing.