“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 saints, 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.” Ephesians 3:16-19
I have been stuck on these verses for a few days now. His love is incomprehensible. I will never understand the depth of His love or why or how He can look past all my sins and faults and still die for me.
Verse 17 says “..And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ…” The main thing that stuck out to me was:
Being rooted and established = may have power
He is our Source. Think of a seed. Alone it does nothing. Alone it withers and dies. Alone it does not know the potential it has to become a beautiful tree that bears much fruit, offers shade and nourishment to people. Alone it is lonely and will die. However, connect it to its source, plant it in good soil, give it sunlight and water, the seed will begin to grow. It will begin to fulfill its purpose.
Read Matthew 13:1-10
In this parable, Jesus tells us about a farmer. There is seed that falls along a path and easily gets eaten up by birds, some fell onto rocks “it sprang up quickly because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root (v.5-6).” Jesus uses this parable to describe how His message will be received in the world. This parable speaks generally of only two categories of people: those who receive and retain God’s message and those who – for various reasons – do not receive or hold fast to God’s Word and continue to follow Him. It matters more how a person continues to spiritually seek after and follow Jesus in faith and devotion than how that person started their journey with Him.
What is your Source?
As we are rooted in Him we will have the power to fulfill our calling, we will have the power to accept and maybe get a glimmer of His love for us, we can experience His love for us.
But we must be rooted and established in Him. We must know our identity in Him.
How do we do this?
Get in the Word!
Talk to Him!
Worship!
Spend time getting to know your Creator. Let your roots begin to grow and run deeper, farther, wider.
Let Him lead.
Verse 18 says “…May have the power to grasp…” Without this power, without our Source, we won’t make it.
The past few weeks, I feel, have had a similar theme in these blog posts. “Rooted in Him“, “Content in Jesus“, “Trust His Process“. The Lord is drawing us. He wants His church to recognize who we are in Him, to accept His great love for us, to rise up and walk in the path He has laid for us. We can’t do this until we have the “power” to do so.
I’m praying for you, friend. That you will find your identity in Christ. That you will remember your First Love. That you will choose to allow Jesus into every moment of your day.
The way we react to the seed of the gospel matters in whether it will take root in our lives. I definitely want to have the power to understand God’s love! Thanks for bringing this together!
Yes! As we draw near to Him, He draws near to us! As we read the Word and dig deeper we will understand more of His plan for us.