As I watch some of the amazing way that God grows us, His servants, I marvel at the things He takes us through to produce fruit-bearing disciples and tools that He can use at will. As a pastor, I watch my congregation, both young and older, with both pride in their growth and pain as they walk through sorrow, testing and difficult seasons. But surprisingly, even when the hard seasons seem to have passed, and the joy of abundant fruit is apparent, I find that there is still an ache deep within me to pray for each of those so embedded in my heart. I find comfort in knowing that Paul was the same. This was his prayer, as it is mine.....

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:14-19)