Somehow men will not practically get away from the thought that our Father is a respecter of persons; that some are predestinated to strength, and some to weakness; some to receive great fullness of the Spirit, others to walk in leanness and barrenness all their days; some to be gladsome—rejoicing evermore—others to go through life with a graveyard face. That wonderful prayer of Paul for the Ephesians, contained in the third chapter, is looked upon by many as a grand, towering mountain-peak of glorious experience; but alas! to never be scaled by them in their “peculiar circumstances,” and with their “peculiar disposition.” Now, Paul evidently knew that there would be just such questioning, doubting children of the Lord all down the ages, who would be ever saying, “But not for me,” so he just prayed: “That ye may be able to comprehend with all saints,” etc. That “all saints” means all, everywhere and in every age. Everything that is comprehended in this prayer is the common heritage of all the saints who will make it theirs. It is to be had for the asking; the conditions being entire abandonment.
I have always been glad those two little words, “all saints,” were not left out. If the prayer had been, “That ye may be able to comprehend what is the breadth, and length, and height, and depth,” etc., I might have thought that such wonderful fullness, the highest type of Christian experience, was simply meant for that Ephesian church, and possibly a favored few preachers, missionaries, and those called to a special work. But when it was so expressed that their privilege was seen to be only that of “all saints,” then aspiration, and purpose, and faith grew bold, and all my being was on the stretch to obtain; and faith said: “It is now and forever, under all circumstances of adversity or prosperity, my own heritage.”
How poor we go; how pauper-like, waiting for things to be given us in the “sweet by-and-by” that ought to be ours in possession, now and here. It is in our Father's will, for our portion of the inheritance this side of the river, that we be “filled with all the fullness of God.”
This wondrous filling is the remedy for all the inside wrongs. A vessel filled with one thing has no room for anything else. A human heart filled with all the fullness of God, has not a particle of room in it for envy, ill-will, jealousy, hatred, self-seeking, anger, pride, love of the world, or anything else that is opposed to God. The trouble is, we get a little measure of the Spirit, and find there is not enough to fill and crowd out all else. And yet our Lord has made provision for it; he will not take the blame of spiritual damage in any one.
This prayer of the apostle answered in a man, will lift him over on the possibility side of life, where he will believe and prove that he “can do all things through Christ strengthening him.” What a grand cure this would be for that large class of Christians who are always talking about what they “can't do,” and never see anything they can do! The one-talent people would have a time of talent resurrecting, and the messengers of the cross would be a supply equal to the demand.—Mrs. M. L. Boyd, in Word, Work, and World.