There's one particular prayer in scripture that I feel like God has repeatedly encouraged me to pray over a family member of mine. I've prayed it many times, and again and again I am struck anew by how powerful its requests are:
"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 3:17-19 (NIV).
This morning, what struck me most was the idea of really grasping how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ! I love that Paul prays for the readers of this letter to know this love, and then says in the next breath that it's a love that surpasses knowledge. Friends, as far as I can tell, it is only by the Holy Spirit that we are able to do just that - to grasp and know that which is ungraspable and beyond knowledge. I praise God for such a wonderful gift!
I've really felt a strong reiteration from the Lord lately: each day must begin with a filling of the Holy Spirit - at least I feel this to be His leading in my life. To lead a Spirit-filled life requires, of course, His filling and it is something I can ask for each day - and again and again throughout the day if needed (which it often is!).
For today, this prayer is the form in which I am asking for that in-pouring of Spirit. That I may be filled to point of submersion with the unknowable knowledge of the love of Christ - it makes complete sense to me that the end of the quoted passage links this "knowing" with being filled with the fullness of God.
The word I chose as the "keyword" in the title of this blog is the word consecrated. There's a Hebrew word, "mālâ", that is sometimes translated as "consecrated" in the Bible. The English definition primarily associated to it in Strong's is "to fill or to be full of." The word also includes nuance implications of both replenishment and a sense of having this action done to someone... it's not something you can do for yourself. It's not something I can do for myself.
To grasp the true width and depth and breadth of Jesus' love for us, for you. For me... The thought kind of knocks me over a little. To grasp this, to take it eagerly, to truly perceive this...well, I hope you will afford me the latitude to say that it's practically synonymous with that infilling and flowing of the Spirit (practically speaking, though not literally). And it is from this vantage point that Paul tells his reader they can be "filled to the measure of all fullness of God."
For today, my prayer for us all is to truly request and be open to receiving this full grasping, this complete understanding and filling - not just mostly, not just kind of. I will be praying that God astounds our expectations of His presence today. Being filled the measure of all fullness... His sacrifice gives us the opportunity for nothing less. What an awesome truth! What an awesome day!
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