Lord, I Need More...

So often when one of Paul’s writings is in our lectionary, the passage begins with something that requires knowing what preceded the text. Our text today is no exception, starting with, “For this reason…” This letter, which is really a prayer Paul is praying for the church in Ephesus, is written to the church so they won’t “lose heart” over his sufferings during his imprisonment for sharing the Good News of Christ. That’s what we need to know, the members of the church have begun to lose heart.

It would also seem that this text doesn’t quite fit the theme of the Old Testament reading and the Gospel reading, which tell stories of miracles of food multiplication. But if we look deeper into the stories at the root of what God shows us about himself, we see some commonalities; we see people with needs and inadequate resources for meeting those needs. In 2 Kings we see 100 hungry people with only 20 loaves of barley and a few ears of grain. In John we see probably 10,000 people with only 5 barley loaves and 2 fish. Not to mention the disciple’s need for more courage when they were in the boat and the storm blew up.

People with needs and inadequate resources, Paul recognized that in the church members in Ephesus. He names some of their needs in his prayer as he prays for God to meet those needs, starting with strength in their inner beings. They were losing heart because of Paul’s imprisonment and they needed strengthened hearts.

When I first began teaching women’s Sunday school, a very wise woman advised me on how to pray for people: let them know how you’re praying for them. Better yet, she said, let them hear you pray for them. It gives them a strengthening and encouragement they won’t get if we just say, “I’ll pray for you.” Another benefit I’ve discovered is that a friend can often recognize needs we don’t recognize for ourselves. I think the woman’s advice probably came from Paul’s approach to the prayers he included in his letters to churches. Paul prayed that these would have strengthened hearts when it was very likely his friends didn’t know what they needed.

We can find ourselves in the same situation in prayer; we’re desperate, we have needs beyond our resources, and we don’t even know what to ask for or where to start. But, let’s get back to our Old and New Testament texts. They knew what they needed, didn’t they? They asked for more food because they didn’t have enough. The lesson we can take from the overarching theme of all our texts this morning is this: we always have access to enough, if we’re asking for the right thing. Elisha knew that. Jesus knew that. Paul knew it, too. What the people needed wasn’t more resources; they needed to know the Source.

Elisha told the doubting servant, “Thus says the Lord: they shall eat and have some left.” Jesus, after hearing the doubting disciples’ remarks of inadequate resources, thanked the Source who was about to supply enough food for 10,000 people. Paul closes his prayer stating his confidence in the Source who “is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine.” All three knew it wasn’t about the resources, it was about the Source. And they knew the Source.

So, how does that benefit us today? What bearing does that have on our lives right now? Well, let’s look closely at Paul’s prayer and understand exactly what he is praying for and what he is hoping God will do in his friends’ lives. We’ve already mentioned strengthened hearts, or as Paul writes, “strengthened in [their] inner being.” Next, we see Paul asking for something particular to bring that strength: Christ in their hearts, in their core – their inner being. After that, we see Paul asking for a particular way this strengthening might be done: through experiential knowledge of God. That is what connects each one of the four texts from today’s lectionary.

We have all we need when we know the Source, when we have experiential knowledge of God from getting to know him more and more as we live our lives walking with him, abiding in Christ. In the middle of this passage in Ephesians we see a phrase that could seem a little out of place.

…as you are being rooted and grounded in love.” v. 17b

Some of you know how helpful plant analogies have been for me in learning spiritual truths, and this verse has resonated with me for years, especially when it comes to abiding in Christ. Much like the veins and arteries in our body that carry the blood pumped from our heart to our extremities and back through our heart again to keep our bodies living and thriving, plants have two similar channels. They carry energy from the sun through the plant and into the soil where the roots grow further and further. The roots pull the nutrients back up through the plants into the leaves where they become food for the plant. Once a plant is rooted and grounded, or established, it is firmly held in the foundation that supports it. Those channels with the back-and-forth exchange through the plant from sun and sky to roots and soil enable the plant to thrive through the exchange.

That’s how we gain experiential knowledge of God. That’s what enables us to be filled with all the fullness of God, to take in every bit of the breadth and length and height and depth of God we have the capacity to take in. That exchange provides us with an inexhaustible flow of an infinite Source of the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge. The totality of it is more than we can comprehend. There is more than enough, with plenty left over. Even when we are satisfied, like all those who were fed.

In this world we will constantly be surrounded with needs that exceed our resources, but our needs will never exceed the abundance available to us at all times from the Source of all we need. Paul’s prayer might be summarized like this:

May you be filled with the knowledge of God, your Source of all things, through experiencing God personally. May you know the One who provides for every need abundantly more than all you can ask or imagine.

My challenge to each of us is this: Let’s not look to our resources, always finding ourselves coming up short and giving us excuses not to move forward with God in miraculous ways. Let’s look to our Source. Let’s ask God for more of God, to know him more fully, to have the power to comprehend the breadth and length and height and depth of the love of Christ. Let’s ask God to fill us with all the fullness of himself. And let’s not be satisfied until we are full… with plenty left over.

Let’s pray.

Source of our very being, it’s so hard for us to the beyond the needs and the inadequate resources we have available. It’s hard for us to break free from the problem-solving mode we so often default to, trying to figure out a way to make things work on our own. Forgive us for our self-reliance. Lift our heads when we begin to lose heart. Lift our eyes to the hills, from where our help comes. Lift our hearts to you and teach us every day how to rely on you as the Source of all we need.

Give us a willingness to be rooted and grounded in love, as Christ dwells in our hearts through your gift of faith. Lord, we need more of you. We need your power to comprehend the capacity of your majesty, the breadth and length and height and depth of your willingness to bend down to us and extend your grace in abundance we can’t begin to fathom. Give us minds that want to know more of the riches of your glory, the absolute perfection of your saving grace.

Strengthen our hearts, the cores of our beings. Help us grasp your fullness as we abide in Christ, drawing from you as the Source of our strength, our peace, our hope, our compassion, our joy, and our love. Fill us to overflowing with everything you have for us today. Work in our lives in ways that show us and allow us to experience your abundant generosity, and let that overflow from our lives to those around us. May our deepest desire be to experience you more fully every day. Lord, we need more of you, and we know you will answer our prayers in ways that are beyond all we can ask or imagine. Thank you for what you are about to do in us and through us. Amen.