Is there power in prayer? That depends on whom one prays. No one should think that praying to Allah, Krishna, or any other deity is any more helpful than wishing on a star. Secular politicians would have us pray and praise them. Many mock “thoughts and prayers” claiming that thoughts and prayers do nothing and they, the politicians, need to do more by balancing the rights of citizens. We should not think that atheistic leaders could help us more than our Creator helps us.

Prayer to God the Father of Jesus Christ is powerful because God is all-powerful and He is able to do more than we can ask and think. The faithful trust in God and pray to Him in times of anxiety (Philippians 4:4–7). Why? Because God promises to give peace and strength to the faithful.

Do you bend your knees in prayer to God the Father? In Ephesians 3, the apostle Paul bowed in prayer to the Father (3:14). He humbled himself and so should Christians now. Bowing in prayer is a common posture of Christians in the Bible. Furthermore, Paul prayed to God the Father as Jesus did and Christians should primarily do. In the Letter to the Romans, the apostle Paul noted that the faithful calls out to the Father while noting that Christ and the Spirit make intercession speaking to God the Father on behalf of the faithful (Romans 8:15, 26, 34). In Ephesians 3, Paul prayed to the Father “from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named” for which Paul was referring to the families of the nations united “in Christ” (Ephesians 1:1; 2:11–14; 3:6).

What power and strength can Christians receive from prayer? The apostle Paul prayed that God give the riches that are “in Christ” to these Christians. He requested God for the faithful to be “strengthened with power through the Spirit in the inner person” (Ephesians 3:16). The faithful in Christ have strength and power from God through the Holy Spirit within each person to comprehend the love of Christ. The apostle revealed in his prayer that this is how Christ dwells in the heart through faith (3:17). Furthermore, Paul prayed that these believers have the faith in Christ so that they are founded and established by love (3:17). Love is the first of the fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22–23). That love allows the faithful to have the strength that allows them to be fully able to understand with all the saints the width, the length, the height, and the depth to know the surpassing knowledge of the love of Christ (3:18–19). The knowledge of Christ’s love enables the faithful to “be filled with all the fullness of God” that is to be full of the attributes of God (3:19).

 God does more than Christians can think to pray to receive. The apostle noted in his prayer that God “is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20). Furthermore, God does this with the power and strength within faithful Christians. Paul revealed that God does this “according to the power at work within us” (3:20). God will not stop doing all these amazing works to His glory in the church and in Christ Jesus. God accomplishes this all as Paul concluded his prayer “throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen” (3:21).