Ephesians 3: 14 – 21 NLT
Paul’s Prayer for Spiritual Growth
14 When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, 15 the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. 16 I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. 17 Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. 18 And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. 19 May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.
20 Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. 21 Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen.
I know that we all come from imperfect families. Not one of us is ever perfect. We try hard to be wonderful people, but I’m sure each one of us can remember situations we wish we could redo because we ‘messed up’. Some of us may have very unpleasant memories of our fathers. Dad just wasn’t there for us that much – too busy at work or for some reason, just not willing to spend time with us. Maybe dad was struggling with his own problems and didn’t have the energy to be involved with us in a good way. If that’s been your life experience, you may find it difficult to believe that God, your Heavenly Father, loves you completely.
But God does love you totally. He loves you so much, that Paul prays that we will have “the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is.” Even Paul knows that we have trouble really understanding how much God loves us. He goes on to say that God’s love is so immense “it is too great to understand fully”.
Stop for a moment and think about the person/people in your life who you love. How much would you – or do you – go out of your way to help them, make their life better? I remember a crazy moment in my life when my daughter was about 2 or 3 years old. She was playing in our front yard and wandered into the neighbour’s driveway just as their teenage son put the car into reverse to get out to the street. He tended to put that pedal down hard. I jumped off our front porch which was about 6 steps up, dashed across the lawn and grabbed her out of the car’s way. After, I was stunned because I had no idea I could move that fast.
God loves you way more than you love the people in your life, even more than you likely love Him. Paul knows that and prays that you will grow in your trust in him. As you go through each day, developing your faith in him, Paul tell us “your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong … Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God”.
Read verses 17 to 19 again slowly. Take in what they say to you. Take some moments to thank God for his love for you, and just relax knowing you are loved.
Our song for today is Oh The Deep Deep Love of Jesus by Audrey Assad.