How to Pray When… Life Feels Overwhelmingly Full
June 15, 2025
Preached by Benjamin Vrbicek
Scripture Reading
Ephesians 1:15-23
15 For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, 16 I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, 18 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might 20 that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22 And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
If you’re going to use your phone to navigate as you drive to somewhere you’ve never been, you must let your phone know where you are—where you actually are, not where you imagine yourself to be, not where you would prefer to be. Consider when you miss an exit on a highway; it takes a minute for the GPS to realize and recalculate.
When it comes to prayer, many of us are not where we want to be. I’ve told our pastor-elders and staff members several times over the past year that I don’t feel particularly gifted at prayer, even though that is a church goal this year. I’d prefer to be out in front, leading by example, but I find myself mostly learning alongside you, and with many of you, I’m sure, leading me. Perhaps that alarms you because a large part of shepherding a flock ought to involve proficiency with prayer. Perhaps it encourages you because it reminds you that all of us, even lead pastors of churches, cannot excel at everything.
As we preach about prayer this summer, I don’t know where you are and whether you feel like you’ve missed some exits—but wherever you are, we can begin in prayer, asking God for help. “Dear Heavenly Father . . .”
The sermon titles this summer will follow the pattern, “How to Pray When…” This week, we’ll focus on how to pray when life feels overwhelmingly full.
Since we have suspended elementary and youth Sunday school for the summer, a few of you might benefit from drawing a picture related to the sermon as you listen. In the bulletin we included paper for that. Perhaps you could draw things that make your life feel full—not necessarily good or bad, just full—and how Jesus fits into that fullness. You can lay them on the stage at the end, and we’ll put them up during the week.
If we could go back a few months, say to February, and you and I were just talking in the foyer at church and you had asked me what I was praying about and what was heavy on my mind, I would have told you that I anticipate late spring—particularly from about April to mid-June—to be very, very full. I might have even used the phrase overwhelmingly full. We had the Easter season at church and baptisms, immediately followed by a trip with our staff to Indianapolis for a conference. Meanwhile, we had three church staff roles changing during this time, with one employee leaving for a new job and a new person starting full-time ministry for the very first time. Meanwhile, I hoped to finish my first book manuscript with a traditional publisher and turn it in before the deadline, a book that will release next summer. (As an aside, the publisher just emailed me the title, which was a fun email to receive. They’re going to title the book The Restoration of All Things: How the Promise of Christ’s Return Brings Us Comfort Today.)
Anyway, standing there in the foyer, if you had asked, I would have also told you that I expected life to be full in other ways. My wife and I hoped to help a few sports teams. We had an anniversary to celebrate. Our oldest daughter was on the verge of finishing high school. I’ve had a few health challenges over the last dozen years, and it seemed time to revisit that mystery again. I also expected a bunch of other stuff to happen that I won’t bore you with—and all of it did happen, and a lot of other stuff too. Certainly not all of it was bad. Some of it was wonderful. But not all of it has necessarily been great either.
At the pastor-elder meeting on Wednesday night, we started the meeting by eating dinner together, singing a few hymns, and praying. Before we prayed, we shared ways we could pray for each other and for the church. Our requests reminded me that my statements of fullness don’t simply apply to me. Most of the men in the room are either coming or going out of one kind of fullness into another. I suspect the same is true of you.
What do you pray when life feels full, maybe even overwhelmingly full? Many of you have been Christians for many years, so prayer—I hope—comes naturally, reflexively. It just happens. But what are those prayers? Others here have walked with the Lord for less time and still others are exploring what it might mean to begin to walk with the Lord for the first time. What do you pray when life feels full?
Certainly we can, and I’m sure do, pray for relief. We can pray for strength. We can pray for better health. We can pray for better economic resources, for college scholarships. We can pray for less strife in relationships. We can pray for challenges to fade. We can pray for God to make a way through the desert or to part the sea or to remove the cup or to take away the thorn in the flesh. And all those prayers wouldn’t be wrong to pray. We could put verses from the Bible to each of those prayers and show that they are not only not wrong, but they are right. We might even study some of those prayers later in the summer.
However, when we come to Ephesians 1, we see a different approach. Like the church in Ephesus, we have plenty of fullness, plenty of good things happening and plenty of challenges, and God wants us to know another way—or maybe I could say an additional way—to pray when life feels overwhelmingly full.
Perhaps I could put it this way. When the fullness of life is right in front of your face, it can be difficult to have perspective. In Ephesians 1, Paul teaches us the importance of praying for perspective.
There are other passages and prayers that teach us to ask, in one way or another, that our fullness might shrink or become more manageable. But this morning we’re praying that we would see the fullness of God, and that seeing and knowing more of God’s fullness would lift our eyes and shift our perspective.
Look with me at vv. 15–16. I’ll read a verse or two, commenting as we go. Paul begins,
15 For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, 16 I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers…
Now, we didn’t read or preach the first part of the chapter, but in it, Paul expounds the extraordinary and secure love of God that God lavishes upon us. God is not stingy as he gives us his love. In light of the extravagance of God, Paul begins to tell them how he prays for them.
Before we go on and read what he prays, notice something about them. What do we learn from these verses? He says that he has heard of their faith in Jesus and their love for the saints. This is a faith and love for which Paul can thank God.
In other words, this is a church, all things considered, doing pretty well. Ephesus was a key port city with a massive economy. And all around them are powers and principalities and idolatry and secular and pagan influences. Yet, they are doing pretty well.
To give one detail, we read in Acts that there was such a stir about Christianity in Ephesus that it was affecting the idol and tourism industries of the temples and shrines. To picture the church in Ephesus, you could picture our church in the midst of Pride Month, but you’d be better picturing a church in Portland or San Francisco, and picture that small, humble church doing such considerable ministry that it disrupts the massive secular economic forces of Pride Month.
I point out that this church is doing well because it represents a shift from the church we studied for the last year, the church in Corinth, which had many struggles. But—and this is the key—in all that fullness in Ephesus, even the fullness of a church doing well in faith and love, what does Paul pray? Look at vv. 17–18. Paul prays…
17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, 18 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints,…
Do you see the shift in perspective starting? That phrase “eyes of your heart” is a poetic way to refer to faith. When life is overwhelmingly full, you can pray that God would cause the eyes of your heart (that God would cause your faith), to expand and be enlightened. Why? Why would we do that? Paul answers that he prays for the eyes of our hearts to be opened so that we might know the hope to which God has called us.
He is saying something like, “Right now, Dear Christian, with the fullness of life right in front of your face, it’s going to be possible that you won’t be able to see the hope that is just beyond the horizon. But I’m going to pray for you that God would cause you to see what you can’t fully see yet, but that God would help you see more of his calling and his inheritance and riches and glory.
There’s so much we could say about that, but look how the prayer continues in v. 19 and then v. 20 and v. 21. He’s praying that we would know…
19 what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might 20 that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.
Now, if this prayer wasn’t wordy before, it certainly is now. In the original language, this prayer is one sentence. Translators do their best to make it manageable by adding some commas and periods and verse numbers. But Paul can’t contain himself. It’s like the eyes of his heart have been enlightened, and he wants the same for us.
While Paul often speaks of the death of Jesus, and what that means for Christians, here Paul prays that we could see the hope that Jesus didn’t just die. Paul wants us to see that God raised him from the dead. Look at the wording: “that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead.”
And Paul speaks of the power of immeasurable greatness. We can measure power from an electrical outlet in a wall using watts and we can measure power from the nuclear plant on Three Mile Island using gigawatts. We can measure the power of a Ferrari using horsepower. We can measure the power of an air conditioner using BTUs. We might even measure the power of influence in terms of followers on social media or subscribers. Whatever the power, each has different units of measurement.
But here Paul prays that we would know what we cannot measure, what he calls immeasurable. Isn’t that a funny prayer? He prays that you could measure the immeasurable.
What else does he say about power? This power was exerted by God when God raised his Son from the dead. And not only raised him, but what do we read? He seated him in the heavenly places. Paul is showing us that when life is full, we need to pray that we would have eyes to see Jesus sitting on the throne of the universe at God’s right hand.
Now, God doesn’t have a physical right hand, just like we don’t have eyes in our hearts. But what does the image of “right hand” imply? Paul wants us to know the authority of Jesus. He speaks of the authority of Jesus as “far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.” Think about the sweeping, inclusive nature of this statement!
He is saying, “Okay, there have been some kings who once had some power, and there have been queens who had some power. Now there are Roman Caesars, and they have power. And, oh, there is certainly power in the forces of evil present in the idols and temples all around and in your city. And there will be in the future other kings and queens and Caesars and presidents and dictators and rulers, and some of them in the future will be okay and some of them will be terribly evil, but,” Paul prays, “there is not one of them in this life that will ever have any of the authority the Son of God has. Indeed, not only in this age but in the coming ages, Jesus will still be on the throne so decisively and so securely that no ruler can ever come to Jesus and say, ‘Excuse me, you’re sitting in my seat.’” Paul wants the eyes of your heart to see Jesus at God’s right hand.
Oh, church, think how this kind of prayer might change your perspective, to know this, to have the eyes of our hearts see this reality. Paul adds words upon words, not to be intentionally wordy, but to show us that no one in this life or the next will ever have the greatness of Jesus.
Look then how the prayer ends in vv. 22–23. When life feels overwhelmingly full, he wants us to know that…
22 [God the Father] put all things under his feet [that is, Jesus’s feet] and gave him [Jesus] as head over all things to the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
Even as you pour yourself out, God is pouring Jesus into us. He’s pouring into the church his strength and power and love and riches. If you pressed me, I’m not sure I know exactly what Paul means when he prays that the church receives in Jesus the fullness of him who fills all in all. But the eyes of my heart tell me it’s good and that it means in the midst of all our overwhelming fullness of life, God can fill you with what you need.
We don’t have time to get into chapter 2. This prayer is followed by a reminder of our sin and need. It’s as if Paul wants us to remember that all the good stuff that we have in Jesus is only better because none of it is deserved and none of it could be earned. If you glance into chapter 2, you’ll even see around verses 6 and 7 that just as God raised Jesus and seated him in the heavenly places, so now Christ takes us and seats us with himself in the heavenly places.
Conclusion
To draw the sermon to a close, I want to look at another passage from the Gospels. It’s in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. But let’s just flip to the one on Matthew 17. We often call it the “transfiguration.” It’s the passage where, for a moment, God opens the eyes of a few disciples to see a glimpse of the greatness of Jesus.
17 And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. 2 And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. 3 And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. 4 And Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.” 5 He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” 6 When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified. 7 But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Rise, and have no fear.” 8 And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.
With all that the disciples were going through, Jesus thought it would be good for them to get a better glimpse of who he really is, even if that image overwhelmed them at first.
I believe this transfiguration passage in the Gospels has so many parallels with Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 1 that we could summarize Paul’s prayer when life is overwhelmingly full as Paul praying that we have a transfiguration moment.
And who gets to have this moment of revelation and transfiguration ? Who gets to have this kind of hope? Is it special Christians who earn such access to God with their piety? No. What did Paul say in his prayer? In v. 19 Paul speaks of “what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe.”
Paul wants the person who has been believing for fifty years to be reminded afresh who Jesus is. And he wants the person who has never believed before to be invited to believe for the first time. Because when you believe, all the powers of God, all the rule and authority and dominion that would have been fashioned against us in our sin, now become for us bent toward our good. When the Father says over Jesus, “This is my beloved Son,” if you believe in Jesus, God says that over you.
I know nothing I said or prayed changed the fact that right now you’re probably coming from one kind of fullness into another. This week wasn’t a prayer mainly about changing our circumstances, at least directly. But if God could give the eyes of our heart this kind of perspective, this kind of faith, it will certainly change how we view our circumstances.
And how you view your circumstances is the beginning of living differently in the midst of them.
Let’s pray and invite our worship team to lead us in song. “Dear Heavenly Father . . .”
Sermon Discussion Questions
What things in your life create fullness? Recently, has the fullness been more of a bad kind of fullness or a good kind of fullness? Would you use the word overwhelming?
In what ways is this prayer in Ephesians 1 like the transfiguration passage in Matthew 17? What do you think that experience might have been like for the disciples? What did it change about their experience of following Jesus? How might it do something similar for us?
The passage speaks of God opening eyes. God often uses human means to do that. How might God use fellow Christians and church members to help keep our eyes open to the power of Jesus?
This week’s sermon didn’t have a lot of practical applications. (For context, Ephesians as a letter doesn’t have a lot of practical applications until chapter 4.) But are there practical ways this “perspective shift” can help us in our daily lives?
