…so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able 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 up to all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:17–19 NAS95)
When I read this text, I stand in awe as well as in hope of amazement. While imprisoned, so not experiencing what you and I call freedom, he writes about the ecstatic nature of engulfment by God’s love. He knows, lives, and experiences the presence of God even while existing in incredibly adverse circumstances. Not only that, his prayer recorded here expresses a desire for all to join him in something that belies words. Paul even struggles to place his experience of God in words as he prays and expresses not only his longing but God’s — that we’d all swim in the experience of God’s love, which surpasses all language and expression, but has its end in experiencing all of God’s fullness. To that, I’d say amazing. Bring it on!
Paul knew something that I know in my world that I neglect: attending to the God who is with me. Paul invites us to experience just that, the presence of God with whom, if we fully surrendered to His love, we’d join Paul in his experience. An open prayer and open invitation from God finding expression in Paul’s words. As I scan the years of my life, I am overwhelmed with the abundance of God’s loving actions and presence toward me, even before I believed. I long to lean into the rooting and grounding in the love of God. Paul in prison notices and attends to God. He observes his experience, discovering he is not alone, and then through his prayer invites us to join him. I am ecstatic that this is as real for today as in his day. The hope of amazement!
For Reflection:
“You, O LORD, will not withhold Your compassion from me; Your lovingkindness and Your truth will continually preserve me.” (Psalms 40:11 NAS95)
- When you contemplate your experience of God throughout your life, what feelings do you experience?
- What stirs in your heart as you consider deepening and appropriating Paul’s words in your own life?
