Short answer: In Ephesians 3:14–19 Paul bows his knees to the Father and asks that believers be strengthened with power through the Spirit in the inner person. That strength is ordered toward Christ dwelling in their hearts through faith and toward their being rooted and grounded in love. The goal is that, together with all the saints, they would comprehend the width, length, height and depth of Christ's love and know a love that surpasses knowledge, so that they may be filled with all the fullness of God. The request is measured by the riches of God's glory, not by the believer's capacity.
A prisoner bows his knees
Ephesians 3:14–19 is a prayer reported inside a letter, not a sermon or a list of commands. Paul has just explained that Gentiles are fellow heirs and members of one body in Christ, a mystery now revealed, and he writes to believers in Ephesus and the churches around them. Before he bows his knees, he sets the tone in 3:12–13: in Christ they have boldness and access in confidence through faith, and he asks that they not lose heart at his troubles for them. The intercession that follows is offered by a prisoner whose suffering, he says, serves his readers' glory.
The prayer has a clear shape. Paul addresses the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, which stretches the request beyond one congregation to the whole family of God. Then the requests stack: strength through the Spirit in the inner person, Christ dwelling in their hearts through faith, being rooted and grounded in love, comprehending the width and length and height and depth, knowing a love that surpasses knowledge, being filled with all the fullness of God. It ends not in instruction but in doxology in 3:20–21, glory to the God able to do beyond all we ask or think.
Notice what kind of speech this is. Paul asks; he does not command his readers to manufacture strength or love. The ground of the request is the riches of God's glory, not the intensity of anyone's seeking. That matters for readers who feel dry. Paul prays this for a church he commends, and the answer rests on God's abundance. The doxology's phrase about power that works in us picks up the prayer's earlier language of power, closing the loop: the God who strengthens is the God who receives glory in the assembly and in Christ Jesus.
Strengthened in the inner person
Paul begins by bowing his knees, a posture that signals the earnestness of the request rather than a formula. He addresses the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, so the prayer is set inside God's wide fatherhood before it asks for anything. Then comes the request itself: that God would grant strength according to the riches of his glory. Notice where the measure lies. It is not in the intensity of our seeking but in the wealth of God's glory. The strengthening comes through his Spirit in the inner person, an inward enabling God gives, not a personality trait we manufacture or a technique we perform.
The next request is that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. The word carries the sense of settling in and making a home, not a brief visit. And it is tied to faith, which means the indwelling is received rather than achieved. From there Paul shifts to two images joined together: rooted, which is agricultural, and grounded, which is architectural. A plant and a building both need what lies beneath them. The foundation here is love, a settled place to stand before any request to comprehend anything. Paul asks for the church, not for isolated individuals.
Then comes the deliberately paradoxical request: to know Christ's love which surpasses knowledge. Paul does not resolve the tension. He asks for a real knowledge of a love too large to be fully grasped, and he asks for it with all the saints, not alone. The goal is to be filled with all the fullness of God, a request no effort could secure. Readers who feel dry should take heart here. Paul prays this for a church he commends, and the answer rests on the riches of God's glory rather than on the intensity of our seeking.
Strengthened in the inner person
Paul's prayer in 3:14–19 grows out of what he has just said about Gentiles becoming fellow heirs and members of one body in Christ. Verses 12 and 13 set the tone: in Christ believers have boldness and access in confidence through faith, and Paul asks that they not lose heart at his troubles for him. So a prisoner, writing from hardship, bows his knees and asks God to strengthen a church he has just commended. The request for inner strength is set directly against the temptation to lose heart. Paul then addresses the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, widening the prayer past one congregation to the whole family of God.
The request itself is measured by God's riches, not by the believers' capacity: that he would grant them, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner person. The strength is ordered toward something specific. Paul asks that Christ may dwell in their hearts through faith, and that they, being rooted and grounded in love, may be strengthened to comprehend with all the saints the width and length and height and depth. The goal is not raw power or personal resilience but comprehension, together with all God's people, of the vast dimensions of Christ's love.
The prayer climbs to knowing Christ's love which surpasses knowledge, and to being filled with all the fullness of God. Notice that Paul asks for a love that cannot be fully known; the request rests on God's generosity, not on the intensity of our seeking. The doxology in 3:20–21 picks up the language of power, attributing glory to the God who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us. Readers who feel dry should not conclude that they lack faith or that God has withheld his Spirit. Paul prays for a commended church, and the answer rests on the riches of God's glory.
Where readers differ on this prayer
Paul bows his knees to the Father, asking that the church be strengthened through the Spirit in the inner person, that Christ may dwell in their hearts by faith, and that they, rooted and grounded in love, may grasp the love of Christ together with all the saints. Careful readers part ways over how to take the request to be filled with all the fullness of God. Some hear a present, growing experience of God's presence that believers should expect and pursue. Others hear a position already secured in Christ that we grow to understand, and they warn against turning a particular emotional or mystical experience into the test of faith. The text itself does not settle which emphasis dominates.
A second disagreement concerns the strengthening Paul asks for. Is it a distinct, identifiable event, or the ordinary ongoing work of the Spirit through the means of grace? The wording asks for power in the inner person, which fits both readings. The dimensions of width, length, height and depth are left undefined. Interpreters tie them to the love of Christ just named, to the scope of the gospel among the nations, or to the whole counsel of God, and the text does not settle the image. What stays central across these readings is the shape of the prayer itself.
Notice the frame that no reading can loosen. The request goes to the Father, according to the riches of his glory, through his Spirit, and its aim is Christ dwelling in the heart by faith with love comprehended alongside all the saints. Paul prays this while in chains, so nothing here promises health, wealth, or freedom from trouble. Readers who feel spiritually dry should not conclude that they lack faith or that God has withheld his Spirit. Paul prays for a church he commends, and the answer rests on the riches of God's glory, not on the intensity of our seeking.
Readers who feel spiritually dry should not conclude from this prayer that they lack faith or that God has withheld his Spirit. Paul prays for a church he commends, and the answer rests on the riches of God's glory rather than on the intensity of our seeking. The request is made to the Father, according to the riches of his glory, through the Spirit, and its aim is Christ dwelling in the heart by faith and love comprehended together with all the saints. No reading of this passage promises health, wealth, or freedom from trouble, and Paul himself prays it while in chains.
A prayer that runs through Christ
Paul kneels, and the first thing he says about God is that he is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named (3:14–15). The prayer is not addressed into empty space. It goes to a Father we know because we know the Son. Every request that follows travels the same road. Strength in the inner person comes through the Spirit, Christ dwelling in the heart comes through faith, and the love Paul wants the church to grasp is Christ's own love (3:16–19). Nothing here is asked apart from him. The confidence of the prayer rests on who Christ is and what he has done, not on the intensity of the one praying.
Look closely at what Paul asks for. He does not ask for a feeling or a spiritual technique. He asks that the Father would grant strength according to the riches of his glory (3:16), that Christ would make his home in their hearts through faith (3:17), and that they would be rooted and grounded in love. The measure is God's wealth, not the believer's capacity. This matters for anyone who feels dry. Paul is writing to a church he has just commended for its faith and love, and still he prays this way. Weakness in us is not evidence that God has withheld his Spirit. The answer depends on the riches of his glory, which do not run low.
The prayer ends where the gospel always ends, in praise. Paul asks that the church would know Christ's love which surpasses knowledge and be filled with all the fullness of God (3:19), then breaks into doxology: glory to the one able to do far more than we ask or think, in the assembly and in Christ Jesus, to all generations (3:20–21). The church's life is joined to him. The boldness and access named earlier come in him, and so does the glory. If you feel spiritually dry, do not read this prayer as a verdict on your faith. Read it as a request that God himself answers, and let your hope rest on Christ rather than on the strength of your seeking.
Praying Paul's prayer in ordinary life
Paul bows his knees and asks for something specific, and his requests give us words to use. Pray for strength in the inner person through the Spirit, not merely for circumstances to change. Pray that Christ would dwell in your heart through faith, and that love would root and ground you. Then pray the same for others by name. Notice that Paul asks according to the riches of God's glory, not according to the intensity of the one praying. The supply is God's, which means a dry season is not evidence that you lack faith or that the Spirit has been withheld. Keep asking anyway.
The prayer is made with all the saints, so it belongs in company. Comprehension of Christ's love is something we are strengthened to grasp together, which makes the local church part of how love becomes real to us. Pray these requests aloud with a small group or a friend. Then watch where the strength shows up in ordinary life: faith that settles under pressure, love that holds when a relationship strains, and a growing grasp of how wide and long and high and deep Christ's love is. Leave the timing and the shape of the answer with God.
The doxology sets the direction of the whole request. Paul ends by praising the one who is able to do far beyond what we ask or think, according to the power at work in us, and he aims at glory in the assembly and in Christ Jesus. That means the answer to this prayer is not finally about your comfort or your platform. Ask for strength, for a settled faith, for rooted love, and for a deeper grasp of Christ's love, and ask that the result would be God's glory among his people, generation after generation.
Biblical fidelity check
Paul bows his knees to the Father and asks that the Ephesians be strengthened inwardly through the Spirit, that Christ may settle in their hearts by faith, and that they, rooted and grounded in love, may grasp with all the saints the dimensions of Christ's love and be filled with all the fullness of God. The risks here are specific: treating the dimensions as a defined diagram when the text names none, and turning a prayer into a technique. Note that Paul prays this while in chains, so nothing here promises ease.
Readers differ over whether being filled with all the fullness of God names a present experience to pursue or a positional reality to understand, and over whether the strengthening comes as a distinct event or through ordinary means of grace. The dimensions are not defined, whether love, the gospel's scope, or the whole counsel of God. What stays central is the Father who grants according to the riches of his glory, the Spirit who strengthens, and Christ dwelling in the heart by faith, known together with all the saints.
Other passages that speak to Ephesians 3:14-19
These themes open out in several directions: the Spirit's work of inner strengthening, the prayer language of bowing the knees, and the call to comprehend Christ's love alongside all the saints. For further study, see Ephesians 4:11–16: Christ Equips His Church on the Spirit's ministry, 1 Thessalonians 5:16–18: Joy, Prayer, Thanksgiving on Paul's prayers for the churches, Anointing Oil in Scripture: James 5 and the Elders' Prayer on the love of Christ in the gospels, and Philippians 4:6–7: Anxious Prayer, Guarded Peace on the fullness of God in the letter to the Ephesians.
Frequently asked questions
What does it mean to be strengthened with power in the inner person?
Paul asks the Father to strengthen believers through the Spirit in their inner person, the hidden core of thought, will and desire where faith actually lives. He is not praying for outward displays of power but for endurance and settled trust, since he has just told them not to lose heart over his troubles. The strengthening is measured by God's riches, not by our capacity, and it serves a purpose beyond itself: Christ dwelling in their hearts by faith, rooted and grounded in love. The goal is that they grasp with all the saints the vast dimensions of Christ's love and are filled with all God's fullness, so the power Paul asks for is the inward strength to know and hold that love.
Paul says Christ's love surpasses knowledge, so how can I actually know it?
Paul prays for a knowledge that is not mere information: he asks that Christ dwell in your heart through faith and that you be rooted and grounded in love, so the love of Christ becomes the ground you stand on rather than a fact you master. He calls that love one that surpasses knowledge, meaning it outruns full comprehension, yet he still prays you may know it with all the saints. Knowing here is relational and corporate, learned in the assembly and in prayer, not by exhausting the mystery. The request is that you be filled with all the fullness of God, which keeps the knowing dependent on God's action rather than your grasp.
Does being filled with all the fullness of God mean I should seek a special experience?
In this passage the filling is the goal of Paul's prayer, not a technique or experience you go looking for. He asks the Father to strengthen you inwardly by the Spirit, so that Christ dwells in your heart through faith and you are rooted and grounded in love. The filling comes as you comprehend, together with all the saints, the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge. It is God's gift, asked for in prayer, and its measure is the riches of his glory, not the intensity of a feeling.
