Pick One.

             For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. 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 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 3:14-19)

                This passage came to mind last night. Paul’s prayer was that out of God’s glorious riches, He may:

·         Strengthen us with power through His Spirit in our inner being

·         Dwell in our hearts through faith.

·         Root and establish us in love.

·         Give us the 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

·         Fill us to the measure of all the fullness of God.

I wish I could say that in my night musings, I came up with awesome things to share with you. Instead, I struggled to remember the words. There’s at least one song that includes some of the words, but they didn’t come to mind either. I wanted to spend some time thinking about, and perhaps grasping, how wide and long and deep is the love of Christ.

So, today’s post is more about the idea of meditation than the results of meditation. Thinking when you’re trying to fall asleep isn’t the best idea, but my challenge today is to hold on to one of these things, to ask God to do it. Of course, doing any one of them would go a long way toward doing all of them, but we have to start somewhere.  Do you need strength? Faith? Love? Power? Knowledge? Filled up? Or, if none of those quite hit the spot, do you need one (part) of the Fruit of the Spirit?

How consistently do we ask God for things like these? Yes, we pray about better jobs, parking spots, stronger relationships, and we’re supposed to pray about those. But how often do we pray about the things in today’s passage? Pick one. 

As an addendum, after writing this, I thought a bit ore about the "how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ" section, and this came to mind. God created the whole universe for you. Even if you were the only person, He still created it with no less wonder. There are videos on social media that begin with the Earth (or something smaller) and work their way up through larger and larger and Larger objects in the universe, without ever reaching the whole of the universe. They could also go through smaller and smaller. He created it all. Then He created mankind, who rebelled and rejected Him - billions of times. Since each person could reject Him many times, perhaps that is trillions of betrayals. All so that He could have a relationship with you, and you rebelled, too, so He sent His Son to die to redeem you. All of it, from seemingly unconnected to you to deeply personal to you is part of the whole of His love for you.  It's the beginning iof the answer.