Faith

Immeasurably More // Framed

Ephesians 3:14-20 (ESV)
“For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family[a] in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us.”

Here is Paul’s Prayer
• I pray that from His unlimited resources, He will empower you with inner strength - with deep fortitude - by his spirit.
• As we trust in Him, Christ will take up residence in us (not just drop by every now and then).
• Then our roots will grow down into the depth of God’s love and will keep us strong.
• And when it comes to understanding that love - may we know the scope of it and experience it.

In this letter, Paul has continuously pointed us and all people to the generosity of God in Christ.
• Ephesians 1:3 - Blessed with every Spiritual Blessing in Christ
• Ephesians 1:7-8 - Riches of Grace - lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding
• Ephesians 1:18 - Riches of His Glorious Inheritance
• Ephesians 2:5 - God is Rich in Mercy
• Ephesians 2:7 - Incomparable Riches of His Grace
• Ephesians 3:8 - Unsearchable Riches of Christ

This is Paul’s prayer and mine for us today…
That we may know, and in turn experience, and then lean in to and ultimately live out of this vast love of God.

This love is expressed in John 3:16-17 (ESV)
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

This love is defined in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 (ESV)
“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.”

This love is given dimension here in Ephesians 3
• Infinitely long and high and wide and deep - more so than we can ever understand fully…
• And Paul says the love of God is “too great for us to understand fully.”
• There is nowhere we can go that we are out of the scope of his presence and therefore nowhere we can go where we are out of the scope of his love, for “God is love” (1 John 4:8 and 16) and as the psalmist says in Psalm 139 “where can I go from your presence.”
• Are we willing to allow this love of God to encapsulate us - to frame us - to define us? If not why not? Guilt, shame, doubt, etc.

Are we willing to allow this love to transform us?
When we take a look at people around us, we don’t have an excuse to look at people outside of this frame. Are we willing to love even as we have been loved (John 13:34)? The love of God for humanity is infinitely long and high and wide and deep.

So… here’s a searching question for each of us…
Who do we need to reframe? Where do we need to start?

May our love and the way we live be the testament to the love of Christ and may his love lived out through us be the agent of transformation in our world.

Our part really is to be awake to these truths, willing to live in and practice these truths and expectant of God to do the immeasurably more than we can even begin to imagine!