Knowing God’s Love

MORNING

Read Ephesians 3:17b-19

Devotion

Nothing in Christianity is clearer than the love of God. God has created us in love. He has chosen us in love. He has saved us in love. He recreates us in love. He will live forever with us in love. We just can’t get away from the extraordinary love of God. “God is love” was the first verse I learned as a child in Sunday School. And yet in this Scripture, Paul was praying that the Ephesians would grasp and know the love of God. What? Surely they already knew God’s love...didn't they?

Paul understood that moving the Ephesian disciples’ appreciation and acceptance of God’s love from their heads (understanding that God loved them) to their hearts (really believing that God loved them) was a difficult and often unnatural journey. He needed to ask God for this to happen. A deep knowledge of God’s love is challenging and uncommon because we experience so little of this depth of unconditional love in our lives. It seems impossible that our holy God will continue to love us whatever we do. But it’s true. Oh, the immensity and depth of God’s love.

Part of our journey as everyday disciples is to fall in love with Jesus and experience how wide and long and high and deep His love is for us. Our appreciation of God’s love grows through our increasing intimacy with Jesus as we rest and depend on Him. Deeply absorbing and enjoying God’s love will probably require lots of prayers like the prayer Paul prayed here. But as our relationship with Jesus deepens, so our appreciation of His love will expand until we are “filled to the measure of all the fullness of God” (3:19).

Prayer

I pray that being rooted and established in love, I 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 I may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Today’s Bible Focus

“May I grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.”

LUNCHTIME (or when you can make a moment during the day)

1. Meditate for a short time on today’s Bible Focus. Let it seep into your heart.

2. Look and see what is happening around you from God’s perspective and listen to see whether God is whispering anything to you.

3. Pray for any not-yet Christians God has placed on your heart.

EVENING

1. Remember: Repeat today’s Bible Focus.

2. Reflect: Reflect on the day and thank God for what He has said and done.

3. Repent: Check where you have neglected or disobeyed God during the day and ask for forgiveness and freedom.

4. Release: Name any concerns or fears on your mind and release them to Jesus.