Over the fleeting years of my life, I have heard and experienced many different descriptions of the innermost thoughts and feelings of the human heart. Many people who have professed faith in Jesus Christ have also discovered deep-seated inner “stuff” that does not match their faith.[1]
It is similar to what the psalmist expressed when he said, “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me?”[2] His outer-self was asking his inner-self why the inner-self was cast down. It is very gracious of God to include this thrice-repeated expression so that all his children would feel free to ask him the same thing, no matter what words we would use to do so.
While I have read many posts and articles about struggles with depression, and consistently discover in people’s inner-selves the long-standing beliefs of worthlessness and hopelessness, there is a phrase of prayer in God’s book that matches even the very worst thoughts, beliefs, and feelings, of the inner-self.
In Ephesians 3, Paul prayed, “that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.”[3]
This prayer can be prayed for the inner-self of any child of God, no matter how we would describe the condition of their inner world. Here is what we are praying for:
First, that God would do something that is “according to the riches of his glory”, not according to the miserableness of our soul condition. Our prayer is not limited by the darkness, depression, sorrow, turmoil, or cast down feelings of our soul. Our prayer is based on what God could do for our souls “according to the riches of his glory”.
Second, we are praying for what God would do for us in our “inner being,” or, in our “hearts”. It does not matter how we would describe the thoughts, beliefs, and feelings of our inner being, we want to see a connection between whatever is inside us, and what God could do there “according to the riches of his glory”.
Third, our concern is not for what depressed, demoralized, dissociative, despondent, discouraged, people can do for themselves. Our interest is in what God “may grant you”. Although we seek to minister to others, we are not interested in our own abilities to do ministry. No matter what is going on in people’s lives, what would God grant them out of the riches of his glory? That is what we ask for.
Fourth, we ask God that, in this connection between “the riches of his glory”, and the menagerie of descriptions of people’s “inner being”, that he would grant each person “to be strengthened”. It does not matter how hopeless they feel, or how weak they appear. The very fact that they are languishing in something they cannot handle requires that we ask God to strengthen them. We can let people know we do not expect them to be strong, or to find strength to win over how they are feeling. We keep telling them that we expect God to strengthen them in their inner beings out of the riches of his glory. No matter what they believe about this themselves, we can keep praying this in faith and watching to see how God will answer this prayer.
Fifth, we do not ask God to make them stronger in themselves, but that they would be strengthened “with power”. As we would not expect a toaster to work if it is not plugged into a receptacle through which it would get electrical power, we do not expect people to win over the inner feelings without receiving the power to do so. When we turn attention from people’s weakness to the power that would strengthen them out of the riches of God’s glory, the most hopeless situations are immersed in the relentless and insatiable hope of God.
Sixth, the conduit, or person, through whom the “strengthened with power” extends from “the riches of his glory” into the state of anyone’s “inner being”, is “through his Spirit”. Again, we do not seek what people can do through self-reliance or even church ministries. We seek what God would do out of the riches of his glory through the indwelling presence of his Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit is in someone’s inner being, he is fully able to bring the strengthening power of God from the riches of God’s glory into the desperately needy condition of the inner being.
Seventh, we pray that God would pour out this blessing of strength, “so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.” We have some idea of what is in people’s hearts from the stories they tell, or the depression they express. We can empathize with how dark and hopeless they feel about themselves. However, for us, knowing that Jesus Christ himself could dwell in a person’s heart, changes everything. We may not understand what is in someone’s heart, but we do understand what Jesus would do if he was dwelling there. So, we pray for this, no matter how hopeless our beloved feel about something like that ever happening.
The rest of Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3:14-21 holds much more encouragement in how we can pray about everything, but especially these deep, dark, troubles of the soul. It allows us to fully empathize with where people are starting from, and accept that they really do believe and feel the things they describe.
However, instead of basing our prayers on what we think they are capable of doing for their own rescue, or what they believe about their condition, we look to the riches of God’s glory who is “able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.”[4]
The bottom line is that living with depression, discouragement, despondency, dissociation, or anything else someone would describe of their broken soul, is not a fit description of what Jesus described as having life “abundantly”.[5] What God would do for his children through his Spirit in response to our prayers is filled with far too much hope for us to limit ourselves to what anyone thinks, believes, or feels to the contrary.
One of the special things about prayer is that, if people are bothered by the things we are praying for them, we don’t need to tell them what we are saying to the Father on their behalf. In such cases, Jesus’ words clearly apply, “But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”[6]
Not only will the Father reward us for what we pray in secret (and together, of course), but he has even given us prayers throughout his book to help us know what to pray according to his will. Praying such prayers as Ephesians 3:14-21 certainly connects to the promise that, “And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.”[7]
© 2016 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)
[1] By this, I do not mean that negative thoughts and feelings are incompatible with our walk with God; only that God’s children often struggle with feeling one way on the outside, and a different way on the inside. Some people believe the inner feelings are “wrong” or “bad” rather than simply our starting place in getting to know God better than we have ever known him before.
[2] Psalm 42:5,11; 43:5
[3] Ephesians 3:16-17
[4] Hebrews 7:25
[5] John 10:10
[6] Matthew 6:6
[7] I John 5:14-15
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