Day 703: Read today's devotional on Bible Gateway.

Amazing Love

Read Ephesians 3:14-21

When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.
(Ephesians 3:14-19)

Reflect

The family of God includes all who have believed in him in the past, all who believe in the present, and all who will believe in the future. We are all a family because we have the same Father. He is the source of all creation, the rightful owner of everything. God promises his love and power to his family, the church (Ephesians 3:16-21).

The “fullness” we experience (Ephesians 3:19) is fully expressed only in Christ (Colossians 2:9-10). In union with Christ and through his empowering Spirit, we are complete. We have all the fullness of God available to us. But we must appropriate that fullness through faith and through prayer as we daily live for him.

God’s love is total, says Paul. It reaches every corner of our experience. It is wide—it covers the breadth of our own experience, and it reaches out to the whole world. God’s love is long—it continues the length of our lives. It is high—it rises to the heights of our celebration and elation. His love is deep—it reaches to the depths of discouragement, despair, and even death. (See also Romans 8:38-39.)

Respond

When you feel shut out or isolated, remember that you can never be lost to God’s love. As Paul mentioned, your “roots” go down deep into God’s love. You can never be uprooted. He tenderly tends your soil and waters you by his Word. The mud of discouragement may leave you feeling stuck for a time. But God’s presence through the Spirit can pull you out of the depths of despair.