O Father, from Your Glorious Riches

Versifier: Trudy Vander Veen

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• Scripture References

Scripture References:
st. 1 = Eph. 3: 16-17
st. 2 = Eph. 3:18-19
st. 3 = Eph. 3:20
st. 4 = Eph. 3:21

Ephesians 3: 14-21 is a prayer uttered by the apostle Paul for the Ephesian church; its two key words are power and love. Christ possesses the power and love Paul talks about, but these can also be ours if Christ's Spirit dwells in us. Paul concludes his prayer with words of confidence and a doxology. Trudy Vander Veen (nee Van Der Hyde; b. Long Island, NY, 1929) paraphrased this text in 1984 (originally using first-person pronouns with the title "My Prayer") after teaching a Bible class for one season on Paul's letter to the Ephesians.

Vander Veen is a member of the Third Christian Reformed Church, Denver, Colorado, where she has been a leader in a neighborhood Bible studies and a church school teacher in a local Cambodian church. For many years she was a secretary at the Bethesda Pastoral Counseling Center in Denver. Vander Veen wrote the lyrics for a musical based on the book of Ruth and has published a number of articles in periodicals such as Discipleship.

Liturgical Use:
This sung prayer is best used as part of communal prayers or as a dismissal prayer, ending as it does with a doxology.

--Psalter Hymnal Handbook

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