Transforming the understanding and experience of life

By Ted Schroder

“When I think of the wisdom and scope of your plan, I fall down on my knees and pray to you, the Father of all the great family of God – some of them already in heaven and some down here on earth – that out of your glorious unlimited resources you will give us the mighty inner strengthening of your Holy Spirit. And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in our hearts, living within us as we trust in him. May our roots go down deep into the soil of your marvelous love; and may we be able to feel and understand, as all your children should, how long, how wide, how deep, and how high your love really is; and to experience this love for ourselves, though it is so great that we will never see the end of it or fully know and understand it. And so at last we may be filled up with God himself.

Now glory be to God who by your mighty power at work within us is able to do far more than we could ever dare to ask or even dream of – infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts or hopes. May you be given glory forever and ever through endless ages because of your master plan of salvation for the Church through Jesus Christ. Amen.” (Ephesians 3:14-19. The Living Bible)

What is the content of your prayers? Christian Wiman writes, “I have spent so much time in the hospital recently, and so much time in truly perilous situations, yet never have I felt farther from any adequate prayer.” (My Bright Abyss, p.142) What is adequate prayer? John Stott suggests that “One of the best ways to discover a Christian’s chief anxieties and ambitions is to study the content of his prayers and the intensity with which he prays them. We all pray about what concerns us, and are evidently not concerned about matters we do not include in our prayers. Prayer expresses desire.” (God’s New Society p.131)

The desire of St. Paul is expressed in this prayer. It reveals how prayer can transform your understanding and experience of life.