that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with might through his Spirit in the inner man, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have power 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 with all the fulness of God.
Ephesians 3: 16-19 (RSV)
Have you ever really thought about the fullness of God’ love? When you add in the riches of His glory and Christ dwelling in our hearts, it is kind of mind-boggling. This devotion looks at all of this under the lens of His immeasurable love.
Nuggets
- God wants us to ask Him to supply us with strength.
- Jesus is the Word that we are to hide in our hearts.
- We get the power to comprehend when we are rooted and grounded in Jesus.
- Jesus’ love is absolute.
Paul started his prayer for the Ephesians in verse 14 of Chapter 3. I know he didn’t write in chapter and verse, but we really didn’t expect him to go that long without breaking out into prayer, did we?
Is Strong Okay?
“that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with might through his Spirit in the inner man” (Eph. 3: 16 RSV).
I got the nickname Bullhead because I am now a strong-minded woman. You know, God is okay with that. In fact, there are several verses besides this one that say we are to ask Him to supply us with strength.
“He gives strength to the weary and strengthens the powerless. Youths may faint and grow weary, and young men stumble and fall, but those who trust in the Lord will renew their strength; they will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary; they will walk and not faint” (Isa. 40: 29-31 HCSB).
“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go” (Josh. 1: 9 NASB).
God knows we need strength to resist Satan’s temptation. We just have to make sure it is His strength, and not our own. “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me” (Phil. 4: 13 NASB).
You see, we have to be filled by the Holy Spirit. When Jesus dwells in our hearts, that makes us strong. We have to be strong to walk in the way He would have us.
Look at the word again — strengthened. It doesn’t say strong, to insinuate we are already there. It is more of an in-the-process word. God is making us strong as we work out our salvation.
To read How Do We Work Out Our Salvation?, click the button below.
God gives us this strength “… according to the riches of his glory …” (Eph. 3: 16 RSV).
We talked before about the riches of Christ (Eph. 3: 8). I think this is the same thing as the riches of His glory (Eph. 3: 16). Those are the blessings that we receive through Christ.
To read What Should We Do About a Career Change?, click the button below.
God gives us these riches because He has the power to do so. His power is evident in His creation and the maintenance of it. It is evident in how His creation intricately fits together.
God gives us these riches because of His love for us. His grace and His mercy are the results of His love.
In Our Hearts
“and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love” (Eph. 3: 17 RSV).
Let’s look into the Christ-in-us bit. Because isn’t that what being disciples comes down to?
“I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you” (Ps. 119: 11 NLT).
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (Jn. 1: 1 ESV).
“So you will be saved, if you honestly say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and if you believe with all your heart that God raised him from death. God will accept you and save you, if you truly believe this and tell it to others” (Rom. 10: 9-10 CEV).
Jesus is the Word that we are to hide in our hearts. Because we have that faith, we are saved. We believe it with all of our hearts.
Jesus also wants complete access to our hearts. He doesn’t want to leave any inch where Satan can worm his way in to derail us.
We allow Jesus into our hearts when we take that step of faith and do the ABCs. He is in our hearts to help us with the D.
The ABCDs of Salvation
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
We can’t earn the privilege of having Jesus in our hearts. This is a part of the gift of salvation.
Because we have Jesus in our hearts, we are “… rooted and grounded in love” (Eph. 3: 17 RSV). It was His love for us that sent Him to and held Him on the cross.
That rooting and grounding ends up producing. Remember that love is a fruit of the spirit (Gal. 5: 22). We are to let Jesus’ love bubble out of us as our own. It is the foundation of our work for Him.
Power to Comprehend
“may have power to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth” (Eph. 3: 18 RSV).
Paul wanted to make sure that we got that this was a heart-issue, not a head-issue. Jesus doesn’t want to be Someone we think about now and then. He wants to be Someone Who is a part of us.
It isn’t that we have read a book and figured out the mysteries of the universe. We can’t. We aren’t God.
But God will give us the power to understand what we need to understand to make the decision to believe in Him. He will guide us to what we need to know.
I bet that is going to be bigger and wider and higher and deeper than we could ever imagine!
How do we get this power to comprehend? We get it when we are rooted and grounded. Jesus increases our perception. The eyes of our heart sees things through His eyes.
To read How Do We Open the Eyes of Our Hearts?, click the button below.
This isn’t a chicken-and-egg thing. The only way you will get the perception is if you are rooted and grounded in Christ’s love. That comes from faith.
If we don’t believe, we aren’t going to comprehend. Only the saints will have that power.
But remember. We’ve talked about “… the unsearchable riches of Christ” (Eph. 3: 8 RSV) and
“… the immeasurable riches of his grace …” (Eph. 2: 7 RSV). We aren’t going to comprehend it all. We aren’t God.
To read
What Should We Do About a Career Change?,
What Are Heavenly Places?,
and
What Is the Foundation of Salvation?,
click on the appropriate button below.
Filled Up
“and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fulness of God” (Eph. 3: 19 RSV).
What this verse is saying is Jesus’ love is absolute. Isn’t that kind of obvious? I mean, this Man died a hideous death. He didn’t have to do that. He could have said, “Bag it,” and came down off the cross.
Jesus not only chose to go to the cross, but He also chose to stay on it. For us.
Now that is love.
Especially when we take Romans 5: 8 into account. “But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners” (Rom. 5: 8 NLT).
When we were at our most unlovable, God still loved us. When we were at our most unsaveable, Jesus loved us enough to save us.
Wow! A love that strong is not going to end. It is not going to be dependent on what we do or don’t do.
It is dependent on God and Jesus. And they don’t change.
“Forever, O Lord, your word is firmly fixed in the heavens” (Ps. 119: 89 ESV).
“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Heb. 13: 8 ESV).
That is a long time.
But look at the last part of the verse. “… that you may be filled with all the fulness of God” (Eph. 3: 19 RSV).
Filled. Full. Complete.
Full of grace. Full of hope. Full of faith. Full of love.
“Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you believe so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. My brothers and sisters, I myself am convinced about you that you also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able to instruct one another” (Rom. 15: 13-14 CSB).
Full of joy. Full of peace.
Making the Connections
Remember, this isn’t the worldview. We aren’t going to get participation trophies. We can’t just say, “Okay, God loves us. That is enough.”
It isn’t. We have to accept God’s gift of salvation.
If you have not admitted that your relationship is not right with God,
have not asked Jesus to be your Lord and Savior,
and have not confessed your sins,
please read through the Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
After we do, God doesn’t want lip service. He doesn’t want Sunday, lukewarm Christians.
God wants dedicated followers. He wants imitators.
To read What Does It Mean to Follow Jesus?, click the button below.
How Do We Apply This?
The best thing we can do is work on our prayer lives (talking about myself here, too). We need to be in communication with Him.
We need to hear His Word, read it, study it, meditate on it, and memorize it. All through that, we need to be in prayer, asking God to provide the meaning.
Hearing His Word (Rom. 10: 17 NLT).
Reading His Word (Rev. 1: 3 ESV).
Praying to Him (Heb. 4: 16 ESV).
Studying His Word (Ac. 17: 11 NLT).
Meditating on His Word (Ps. 1: 1-2).
Memorizing His Word (Ps. 119: 11 NLT).
To read Has God Provided Everything We Need?, click the button below.
Father. Your love for us is overwhelming. We want it obvious that Christ is living in us. Let His love bubble out of us to show the world who He is. Amen.
What do you think?
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