Jesus is our inner strength.
Ephesians 3:16–21
“I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being.” — Ephesians 3:16
There is a significant difference between knowing about Jesus and allowing Jesus to become the strength of your life.
I grew up in a Christian home. My parents loved Christ and served the Church deeply, and because they loved Him, our family was in church whenever the doors were open. I attended Sunday school, Vacation Bible School, church camp, youth group, and revival meetings. I learned the Bible stories, sang the hymns, and knew all the routines of church life.
Yet something happened repeatedly throughout my childhood.
Whenever a sermon touched my heart, I found myself walking to the altar again. I wanted to make absolutely certain I belonged to Christ. I wondered if I had prayed sincerely enough, believed strongly enough, or truly understood what salvation meant.
Looking back, I realize I wasn’t rejecting Christ—I was searching for assurance.
Without realizing it, I had tied my confidence to my feelings instead of God’s promises.
There is a beautiful blessing in being raised in a Christian home, but eventually every believer must discover that borrowed faith must become personal faith. My parents could introduce me to Jesus, but they could not believe for me. My pastor could preach the gospel, but he could not trust Christ on my behalf.
Over time, God gently taught me that my assurance rests not in the perfection of my prayer but in the perfection of my Savior. Salvation depends on what Christ accomplished, not on how intensely I happened to feel on any given day.
That realization changed everything.
My journey moved from borrowed faith to personal faith—and then from personal faith to a deeper, inward strength that continues to grow today.
That is exactly what Paul prays for in Ephesians 3.
God’s Greatest Work Begins Where No One Else Can See
Paul is writing from prison. Surprisingly, he doesn’t pray that God would remove hardships or make life easier for believers.
Instead, he prays:
“That out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being.”
The “inner being” is the hidden part of who we are—our character, convictions, thoughts, desires, courage, and faith.
We naturally pray for God to change our circumstances.
“Lord, fix this relationship.”
“Open this door.”
“Take away this struggle.”
Those are good prayers.
But Paul prays something even deeper.
“Father, whatever happens around them, make them strong within.”
That changes our perspective.
A strong Christian is not someone with an easy life.
A strong Christian is someone whose inward strength is greater than outward pressure.
Our culture spends enormous energy developing the outside of life—our appearance, achievements, reputation, possessions, and image. Yet those things cannot sustain the soul.
God works differently.
Before He changes what others see, He strengthens what only He can see.
Like the roots of a tree, the most important work happens underground. No one applauds the roots, yet they determine whether the tree survives storms, drought, and seasons of hardship.
So it is with us.
God often performs His greatest work in places no one else notices.
The Strength Comes From God’s Riches
Notice where Paul says this strength comes from:
“Out of His glorious riches.”
Our strength doesn’t come from personality, education, experience, willpower, or positive thinking.
It comes from God Himself.
There is a difference between giving from riches and giving according to riches. A wealthy person may give a small gift from great wealth. But God gives according to His limitless riches.
Our weakness never exhausts His strength.
Our need never surprises Him.
Our emptiness is never greater than His fullness.
The Christian life isn’t sustained by how much strength we bring to God.
It is sustained by how completely we receive the strength He provides.
Christ Wants More Than a Visit
Paul continues:
“That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.”
Christ already lives in every believer, so Paul isn’t praying for salvation.
He is praying that Christ would truly make Himself at home.
There’s a difference between being present in a house and feeling at home there.
A guest stays in the living room.
The owner has access to every room.
Many of us gladly welcome Jesus into certain parts of our lives while quietly locking other doors.
We invite Him into Sunday mornings but keep Him out of our finances.
We welcome Him into public worship but resist His work in private attitudes.
We gladly receive His forgiveness while hesitating to surrender our pride, bitterness, fears, or habits.
Discipleship is not simply adding Jesus to an already busy life.
It is allowing Him to become the center of our lives.
Conversion opens the door.
Discipleship hands Him the keys.
Rooted in Love
Paul next prays that believers would be “rooted and established in love.”
He combines two pictures.
One is agricultural.
The other is architectural.
Roots.
Foundations.
Both remind us that stability depends on what lies beneath the surface.
And beneath every mature Christian life should be one unshakable foundation:
The love of Christ.
Many Christians try to grow through fear.
They fear failure.
They fear disappointing God.
They fear never being good enough.
Fear may produce temporary obedience, but it cannot produce mature disciples.
Love can.
We don’t grow in order to make Christ love us.
We grow because, through Christ, we are already loved.
When we are secure in His love, we become free to confess sin, receive correction, extend forgiveness, and continue growing even after failure.
Christ’s love becomes the soil where lasting spiritual growth takes place.
A Love Too Great to Measure
Paul then stretches language to its limits.
He prays that believers would grasp:
“How wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.”
How wide?
Wide enough to embrace every person who comes to Him.
How long?
Long enough to cover our past and carry us into eternity.
How high?
High enough to lift sinners into fellowship with God.
How deep?
Deep enough to reach into guilt, shame, grief, addiction, fear, and even death itself.
Then Paul says something remarkable.
He prays that we would “know this love that surpasses knowledge.”
We can truly know Christ’s love without ever exhausting it.
Like standing beside the ocean, we experience its beauty without measuring every depth.
The Christian life is not about moving beyond the gospel.
It is about continually discovering just how much greater the gospel is than we first imagined.
The deeper we understand Christ’s love, the less we feel compelled to prove ourselves and the more freely we can give ourselves away in service to others.
Like a tree planted by living water, so too our faith will bear fruit.
Filled With God’s Fullness
Paul’s prayer reaches its highest point:
“That you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”
God’s goal isn’t simply helping us survive another difficult week.
He desires to transform us into the likeness of Christ.
He wants His love to replace resentment.
His courage to overcome fear.
His hope to drive away despair.
His holiness to reshape compromised hearts.
Christian maturity isn’t becoming more self-sufficient.
It is becoming more dependent upon God.
The strongest disciple isn’t the one who needs God the least.
The strongest disciple is the one who has learned to depend upon Him the most.
Immeasurably More
Paul concludes with one of the greatest doxologies in Scripture:
“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.”
We often quote this verse when asking God to do great things around us.
In context, Paul is speaking first about what God does within us.
The greatest miracle God performs may not be changing our circumstances.
It may be changing our hearts.
Before God does immeasurably more through us, He often does immeasurably more within us.
That inward transformation becomes the source of everything that follows.
A Simple Way to Remember
I often summarize Paul’s prayer with one simple word:
ROOT
Remain in Christ through prayer and Scripture.
Open your heart to the Holy Spirit’s work.
Obey God’s Word in everyday life.
Trust His strength instead of your own.
These are not steps to earn God’s grace.
They are ways of placing ourselves where His grace can continue shaping us.
From Borrowed Faith to Rooted Faith
Looking back, I remain grateful for every altar where I knelt as a child.
God was patient with me.
He used those moments to keep drawing me toward Himself.
But eventually He taught me that assurance is found not in repeating an emotional experience until it feels perfect.
Assurance is found in trusting a perfect Savior.
Perhaps that’s where you are today.
Maybe you’ve lived around Christianity for years, but your faith has remained someone else’s faith.
Perhaps it is time to make it your own.
Or maybe your faith is genuine, but your roots have remained shallow.
Every disappointment shakes you.
Every emotion determines your confidence.
Every storm leaves you wondering whether God is still near.
Paul’s prayer reminds us that God wants something deeper.
He wants to strengthen us in our inner being.
He wants Christ to be fully at home in every room of our hearts.
He wants us rooted in His love, growing in His grace, and filled with His life.
God grows us from the inside out.
The strongest lives are built by the deepest roots.
Good Words
“Christianity is not sustained by our strength for God, but by God’s strength within us. Before God changes what other people see, He strengthens what only He can see. God grows us from the inside out. The strongest lives are built by the deepest roots.”
— Rev. Rick E. Carder
