The Love of God: Deep and Wide
“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. 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 3:16-19
This is a beautiful prayer that Paul prayed for the Ephesians. How would you like for someone to pray this for you?
It is chock full of the beauty and goodness and love of God. Do you ever have a hard time believing that God loves you? Look at what these verses say: out of his “glorious riches”, “wide”, “long”, “high”, “deep” (are there any more directions to go?), “surpasses knowledge”, “filled to the measure”.
If I didn’t know better, I might think that this was a Tall Tale- you know- where everything is super exaggerated. But the Bible doesn’t exaggerate, and God really DOES love his children with a love that is greater than we can comprehend.
How much does he love us? Enough that while we were still sinners he sent his own son to die for us. (Romans 5:8). That is a lot.
The Bible doesn’t say that he loves us after we are good and quit sinning, and at that point Christ’s sacrifice counts for something. Nope. It says that we are ALL sinners, can never be good enough or pay for our sin, so he took care of it for his children- those who believe in him as their savior (by sending Christ to die on the cross and rise again). That is a kind of love we can’t comprehend.
Paul prays that the Ephesians would be able to grasp this love, and also that they would be strengthened by his Spirit, and that Christ would dwell in their hearts. These are the most important things in the world.
Finally he prays that they would be filled with all of the fullness of God. Wow. We can pray and ask God for these things too. It is not exaggerating to think that he can give them to us.
Our God is that big and that wonderful. And because of what Christ did on the cross (died for our sins and then rose again), we can know that big, wonderful, and total love. And that is not a tall tale.
Do you know the love of God?