Ephesians 3:16-19 “I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” Today's episode reminds us that God is not disappointed in us, He is proud of us for all we are trying to do. He isn't looking at all the ways we are letting others down. He is focusing on how hard we are working to do better. Music: "Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
God’s Love For Us
Ephesians 3:16-19 “I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”
I love this verse. I probably say that about a lot of these verses. I think when I am reading through the whole Bible, one chapter at a time, I miss a lot of the information that is contained in each verse. I get the idea of the chapter, and I understand the lesson and the main things I am supposed to learn, and yet even as I write this, I am not sure I do get all the things I am supposed to learn, as it seems like there is so much in each verse. I am really enjoying taking a look at each verse or a couple of verses individually and trying to see what they are telling us and how they apply to our lives.
I think this verse is particularly special, as I read it today, as I have a friend who is struggling with inner strength. Her situation is so difficult right now, and she is trying so hard to be the strong one. She was trying to hold it together for her family. I bet if you are a parent, you find yourself doing this a lot. We feel all the weight of the family on our shoulders. No matter if you are a mom or a dad, you feel the weight. We try to stay strong because we feel that if we fall apart, our family will fall apart. We stay strong because we want our kids to feel secure and know that we have it all together. We want them to know we are there for them. We all do this; you are not alone.
My friend said something today that made me think, if she is feeling this way, maybe others are too. Then, when I read this verse, I thought it could help me explain why we don’t need to feel this way. My friend said she tries to stay strong because she doesn’t want God to be disappointed in her. I am guessing that she is not the only one of us who feels this way. It can be tough because we know that we have a lot to be grateful for, and we don’t want God to think we are ungrateful for all the things that are going right. We love God and we want to please Him. We want to do what we can to make Him happy. He is our Heavenly Father, and it makes sense that we don’t want to disappoint Him.
My first thought was that we can’t disappoint Him. He loves us more than we could even imagine. However, I don’t think that is true. I think that He is probably disappointed when we sin, especially if it is something that we know better than to do and yet we do it anyway. We know how He wants us to live, and so if we are continually breaking his commandments, He probably does get disappointed with us. Short of this, I do not think He gets disappointed with us. God is the one who made us who we are. He made us with our unique personalities and all of our feelings. He knows that we are not perfect. I don’t think that He gets disappointed in us when we feel weak. God said in 2 Corinthians 12:9, “But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” God’s power is made perfect in our weakness. It is when we can admit our weakness that God can move in and give us power.
“I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.” This is a powerful statement. The Holy Spirit lives in each one of us. And God gives us power through this Spirit in our inner being. Through this power of the Holy Spirit, Christ dwells in our hearts as well. Think about that for a minute. You not only have the power of the Holy Spirit strengthening your inner being, but you also have Christ dwelling in your heart. You can handle anything that comes your way. God has you covered. He is there every step of the way. This is something that He is repeatedly telling our Prayer Group. I am there for you, in good times and in bad. I will lift you up when you fall. Lean on me in times of trouble.
When we are weak, God is not disappointed; He expects it. He knows we can’t do it all on our own, and He doesn’t want us to. He wants us to lean into Him. He wants us to ask for help. His Glory shines when we ask for help. Think about your children or your pets. What do you feel inside when they ask for help, or when they are sad? Are you disappointed or frustrated with them? No, you love them, and you would do anything to help them. This makes me think of a verse in Matthew 7:11: "If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” In this circumstance, it would be more like “If you have compassion on your children when they are sad and feeling weak, how much more compassion would your Heavenly Father have on you?” He loves you!
The second verse from above describes this love. “And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” Did you catch it? It talks about being able to grasp how wide and long and high and deep the love of God is. I wonder if we are even capable of this? The Lord is also repeating this message over and over again to our prayer group. This is a word that was given at one of our meetings, “I love you so much. You cannot understand the depth of my love. If I let the power of my love loose and hugged you, I would crush you. My love for you is that great. It consumes you.” Can you imagine this kind of love? Think of the biggest bear hug you have received from someone, or maybe given to someone. Now times that by a million. That is how much God loves us.
I really liked this image. I think it helps me to imagine how much God loves us. It also helps me to remember that He loves us more than we are capable of loving others. You can see examples of God’s love all throughout the Bible. There were so many times when he gave grace to people who didn’t deserve it. When you read about all Jesus’ interactions with people, they were full of love. When I am struggling with thoughts that I might be letting God down, I remember this word and how much He loves me. I truly believe that He looks down on us and is so proud of us for all of our efforts. I will leave you with another word that was given at our prayer group. “My children, you strive hard to follow me. But I am asking you to simply lean into me. When doubts assail you and enemies crowd near; when your own thoughts rise in rebellion against my goodness; praise me and watch me work.”
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask that you bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, we ask that you help us to feel your love today. We pray as it said in the verse that we are able to grasp how wide and long and high and deep the love of Christ is. Heavenly Father, we love you so much, and we know our love is just a fraction of how much you love us. Remind us of this, Lord. When we are struggling and we feel we are letting you down, remind us of your love. We are grateful, Lord, for all you've given us, and we know that you are with us even in the hard times. Help us lean into you. Help us to praise you, Lord, even when we're sad and even when it's difficult. We love you, Lord, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will, and in Jesus’s holy name, amen