A Peek Under the Hood

This past week while driving my ’99 Suburban–I love that vehicle–I started hearing a loud squeaking in the engine. Uh…oh. That’s never good.

So, to check it out, I opened the hood. After putting my ear next to the squeak, I realized the water pump was going bad. Ouch! I knew that would not be a cheap fix.

To figure out it was the water pump, I had to know where the engine was, know how to open the hood, find the squeak, then know the squeak behind the fan attached to the engine block was the water pump going bad. How did I know all that? Two years of auto mechanics classes in high school.

So what’s under your spiritual growth hood?

Fortunately Ephesians 3:16-17 provides a clue through a prayer by the Apostle Paul:

“I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith…”

I pray that out of his glorious riches…so out of what God has (his glorious riches), he’s willing to give us something.

He may strengthen you with power…so God strengthens us with his power from his glorious riches.

Through his spirit…so the power of God comes through the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, who lives inside each follower of Jesus.

In your inner being…so God gives us this power in our inner being. Here we feel it, we experience it.

From this verse, I pulled 5 steps that give you a peek under the hood about how your spiritual growth work:

Step 1: You engage in spiritual activities.

Step 2: These activities cause God to strengthen you with his power.

Step 3: God possesses this power from his glorious and limitless riches.

Step 4: God gives you this power in your inner being.

Step 5: The Holy Spirit delivers this power into your inner being.

Pray for this power. Pray that God will not just keep your spiritual engine running, but that he’ll strengthen it and make it more powerful every day.