14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,
15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named,
16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being,
17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith-that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us,
21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
We don't normally bless our friends and families in this way. We just good night and hope it all works out and I'll be praying for you. God's purpose for leaders is to lead His people to His blessing by relaying over and over again the amazing plans and power Christ wants to place in their lives. Paul's words are over the top but they leave the people with more assurance than we often do in our rush to get things done in our agenda. Perhaps we need to be more purposeful to bless the people we come in contact with, to linger like Meg described and not leave without leaving something behind.
ReplyDeleteOne of the things we saw is that we need strength to even be able to understand and comprehend the greatness of God's love for His people, His love for us individually. Our minds need strength beyond what we are able to reason in order to understand His love.
ReplyDeleteAlso, he is saying here that if we as God's people really understood the vastness of God's love for us, it would change everything about our world. It would change the way we see ourselves because we would see through the reflection of His love. It would change the way we see, live, and interact with other believers because we would see them through His eyes of love. It would change how we view our lost neighbors, coworkers, family members, and friends because we would see how much our Father longs for them to experience the love He has for them. It would change our priorities and how we spend our time, our money, everything!
This is something we should pray for each other as leaders and for the body that we all would grasp just how much God loves. Only then are we prepared to ask Him for audacious things, which Paul says pale in comparison to the reality that Christ will accomplish, giving us more and using us more than we could ever even ask.
If we follow Paul's example, then this SHOULD BE our prayer for ourselves and for one another. We need the Holy Sprit to help us fully comprehend God's Word so we can truly appreciate and know Christ's love for us. Verse 19 states: "..filled with all the fullness of God." Wow, we all need more of that
ReplyDeleteWe love this passage. A couple of our favorite worship songs come from this passage. If we could only grasp the vastness of his love for us and communicate that to each other this world would be Radically different.
ReplyDelete