"14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being,17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen."
Ephesians 3:14-21
Paul's prayer seems to have left nothing unsaid, but still he is not finished, for he says in the glorious doxology that follows in 20, 21, 'God can do even more than this - He can do more than we could ever ask or even think possible'. There is great challenge, as well as encouragement in this thought for it teaches us that we cannot excuse ourselves from rising to the tremendous possibilities of the Christian experience of which Paul has been speaking by thinking that it is much too high for us. The real issue is not whether such a life is possible - it is - but whether we are willing for it to be made a reality in our experience. If we are willing, He is able to raise us to unimagined heights. Of course the standard is too high for unaided mortal effort - we could not even begin to rise to what Paul has unfolded in these verses by our own strivings, let alone reach it. But that is not Paul's point. It is the divine activity, not ours, that is emphasised here. We must beware of making the very splendour and glory of the gospel provision an excuse for our basic unwillingness to allow God to do in us all that He wants to do. He is able: but the question is whether we are prepared to allow Him free and unrestricted right in His indwelling of our lives.