Ephesians 3

"I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ."  Ephesians 3:17b-18

We as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ are part of the family of God!  We are His children! Ephesians 3:7 tells us that we are servants and children of God because of "the gift of God's grace" and "through the working of His power."  Ephesians 3:8b goes on to say that we are recipients in Christ of "the unsearchable riches of Christ."  The riches of His grace and His blessings to us are so bountiful that they are far beyond our total comprehension in their magnitude!  Isn't that an awesome thought?

Another blessing we have in Christ is our ability to approach God with confidence in prayer.  Ephesians 3:12 says, "In Him and through faith in Him we approach God with freedom and confidence."  For this reason we need to pray the prayer of Ephesians 3:16-21.  It is a prayer that the apostle Paul prayed for the Ephesian church and for all believers.  It is a prayer that we need to pray for our fellow believers and for all believers.  Paul prayed, "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." (Ephesians 3;16-17)

Paul's prayer and our prayer should be that Christ will live in our hearts as believers in a powerful way.  It should be our consuming passion and prayer that Christ will be at home in our lives and hearts.  It should be our consuming passion that we will grow in our faith and that the power of the fruit of the Holy Spirit will be ever more evident in our lives.  It should be our prayer that sin will be eradicated from our lives and that Christ's character in us will be ever more evident.

Paul's prayer for believers continued.  Paul said, "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 3:17b-19)

Paul's prayer was that we would begin to comprehend the magnitude of the love of Christ for us, His children.  We will never fully comprehend the greatness of His love, because it "surpasses knowledge" in it awesome greatness.  In the measure we begin to grasp Christ's love for us, however, the greater will be our love for Him and the greater will be our desire to serve Him.

The way we can begin to understand Christ's love for us is by being "rooted" or foundationed in His love.  He increasingly needs to become Lord of every area of our lives.  We increasingly need to become "rooted" in Him by spending daily time in His Holy Word and in prayer with Him.  The more time we spend developing our relationship with the Lord and the more time we spend serving Him, the better we will be able to grasp the greatness of His love.

Ephesians 3:19 reminds us that our passion and desire for our lives must be to "be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God."  Our passion must be that we be emptied of self and filled with Christ's character.  Our passion and prayer must be that Christ will dominate our lives more and more and that our eyes will be open to Christ's blessings and love in our lives.  There is no room for becoming complacent in the Christian life.  We need to grow in our love and passion for the Lord.  We need to grow in our understanding of His love and power in our lives.  May this be our prayer and desire.  Praise to Him "who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us." (Ephesians 3:20)