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Paul's Prayer II


And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,  may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, 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)

          Do you understand how wide and long and high and deep God’s love is? Do you have the slightest idea of what it would be like to be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God? After more than thirty-five years of being actively a Christian, I think my knowledge is pitiful, and as for being filled with fullness, it doesn’t seem to me that the needle even registers a quarter of a tank, but I know that I’m not a good judge of these things.         
           But that’s OK because God knows even if I don’t, and He’s the one leading the way, and even if I only have “fumes” of God in my “tank” those fumes are still enough to raise the dead and create the universe. They are no less God, and no “part” of God is less God than the whole. It’s not cut off, not disconnected.
           So while I want more (probably for all the wrong reasons), what I have is enough. That doesn’t mean that I don’t want God to open my eyes to the width, length, height, and depth of His love that is beyond knowing. It also doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t like to see God fill more of my life. I don’t think I’m alone in this. So this piece of Paul’s prayer is a good one for us to pray for ourselves and each other.

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