In Ephesians 3:18-19 Paul says, And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.
He is praying that the church will know the unknowable love of God. This is the work of the Holy Spirit because we can't wrap our human brains around it. Sometimes we think that God loves people based on how 'good' they are. The truth is that God loves everyone, regardless of their gender, sexual identity, nationality, religion, or 'goodness.' He loves those in the churches, just like he loves those in the jails. Just because he loves us all, doesn't mean he loves all that we do. When we understand the love of God, we experience fulness of life. That sounds pretty good to me, what what does it mean? I think it means that God's love shines a whole new light on our anxiety, our fears, our sin, our troubles, our purpose, our hope, on everything. It's like turning on the light in a dark room, everything becomes clearer. The bad stuff doesn't go away, we just see it in a new way. Take a moment to reflect on God's love.
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In Ephesians 3:18 Paul prays, I pray that you and all God’s holy people will have the power to understand the greatness of Christ’s love—how wide, how long, how high, and how deep that love is. It's impossible to wrap our human brains around the superhuman love of God. 1 John 4:8-10 says, But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love. God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.
Jesus Christ is the Son of God, so it figures that he is love too. He loved us so much that he died on a cross for us. He did that, not because we deserved eternal life with him, but so that we could deserve eternal life with him. That's epic. I love Paul's prayers for the early church. In Ephesians 3:16 he says, I pray that he will use his glorious riches to make you strong. May his Holy Spirit give you his power deep down inside you. He was praying that they would have strength to continue in their faith in the face of great persecution; that they wouldn't be discouraged because he was currently in prison for his faith.
I think this prayer is relevant today too. We don't face imprisonment for our faith where I live, but you definitely face criticism, judgement, and persecution for following Jesus. My prayer for you is that the Holy Spirit would give you power to follow Jesus, even when you face persecution; that you would have strength to love others, even your enemies; that you would have strength to have faith in God when things are hard, that you would have strength to do the good things that God has planned for you; and that you would have strength to tell others the Good News about Jesus. The purpose of Jesus (his coming to earth, his death and resurrection) was to bring us close to God. In the Old Testament, the Israelites couldn't come near to God because his presence was so powerful that it would kill them. Moses had to cover his face when he approached God to collect the Ten Commandments, the High Priests had to purify and cleanse themselves when they came into the Holy of Holies in the temple, where God's presence resided. But, because the blood of Jesus has wiped away every sin, we can come into the presence of God without fear or shame. We were once far away, but Jesus has brought us near to God. How amazing is that!
Ephesians 2:10 says, God has made us what we are. In Christ Jesus, God made us new people so that we would spend our lives doing the good things he had already planned for us to do.
God made us what we are - forgiven, cleansed, worthy to be in God's presence. He also prepared good things for us to do. Some versions say good works. These things don't have to be big things. He might have blessed you with great musical ability so that you can write songs and sing for him. He might have gifted you with great culinary skills so that you can be hospitable and cook for people. He might have gifted you with the gift of evangelism so that you are very good at explaining the good news about Jesus to people. He might have blessed you with an optimistic outlook so that you can encourage others. What good things do you think God has prepared for you to do? THIS IS IMPORTANT! There is nothing you can do to earn salvation! No amount of being good and resisting temptation will ever be enough. One sin is enough to disqualify you from spending eternity with Jesus. I don't know about you, but I have sinned A LOT (and I consider myself a fairly 'good' person). The good news is that we're not saved by what we do, but what we believe, or rather, who we believe.
This isn't a license to sin. We don't do good works to be saved, but because we're saved. When you love someone, you do things to please them. It's the same with God. We don't do good works so that God will love us, he already does. We do good works because he loves us, and we love him. Note: I would recommend using double sided tape. It's easier to cut them out if you fold them in half before cutting the curved corners.
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