Power From Above

The lesson discusses Paul's prayer that we would know the unsurpassing greatness of God's mighty power in our lives. Paul's prayer presupposes that the power of divine resource necessary for these things is already resident in the believer. Therefore, it is unnecessary to pray to recieve such things. Paul prayed that we would implemet that power to live godly lives. John MacArthur writes, "It is expected that we pray for such blessings if the tone of the prayer is one of seeking the grace to appropriate what is already given, rather than one of pleading for something we think is scarcely available or is reluctantly shared by God....It is tagic that many believers become entangled in a quest for something more in the Christian life, for something special, something extra that the 'ordinary' Christian life does not possess." (NT Comm.; Eph.; p 43,41 resp.).