Read Ephesians 1-3. What do these verses tell you about the nature of God? What do they say about the love of God? What do these verses tell you about yourself?
Take a few moments to pray the two prayers included in these three chapters. Pray Ephesians 1.17-23 and 3.14-21.
Take a few moments to reflect on these two prayers. What do they have in common? How are they different?
What is the primary reason you pray? What is your motive in prayer? How do you sense God meeting you in spaces of prayer? What is one area you’d like to grow in understanding prayer or practicing prayer?
Notice Paul’s posture in his second prayer. His posture is not mentioned in the first prayer. Is this significant for any reason? What about your posture in prayer? What does it say about the posture or positioning of your heart as you come before our Holy God?
What happens in the spiritual realm when we pray? What doesn’t happen?
What is the primary reason for Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3? What is He asking God to do for the people of Ephesus?
It was said on Sunday that the conversion journey is from knowledge to knowing. Where do you sense you are on this journey? How is God inviting you to grow deeper still?
It was also mentioned on Sunday about a middle place on the conversion journey, that of “unknowing.” Are there things you might need to “unknow” in order to help you grow?
Read 3.18-19. How do you see Paul’s prayer both personally, and communally? How do you see this prayer for you and for those around you?
Paul refers to God’s “power” in the prayer. What is the power Paul prays for us to receive? Have you received this power? If so, what does His power enable you to believe and to do?
Spend a few moments considering the story of the woman caught in adultery in John 8. How does this story speak to you about the love of God? How does Jesus express His love to the woman?
How often do you hide, hoping not to get caught? How tiring is it to continue to live so that you don’t get caught? Here, when the woman is caught, she experiences freedom, not judgment. How does this translate to your own journey?
Read the benediction of this prayer vs. 20-21. What do these verses mean to you? How might you live into the truth of these verses today?
