THE DEPTH OF HIS LOVE
I ask that out of the riches of His glory He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. Then you, being rooted and grounded in loveG26, will have power, together with all the saints, to comprehend the length and width and height and depth of the loveG26 of Christ, and to know this loveG26 that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.…
Ephesians 3:16-19
Paul knew how to pray for fellow believers. Notice he prayed that the Ephesians would be given the strength and competence to understand something that is beyond human ability to grasp—the love of Christ. We can only come to God’s grace when His Spirit calls us, and we are only able to understand the depth of His love as He empowers us to do so. Then Paul prayed that they would be crammed full of God.
When I (Susie) was teaching middle school, I often prayed that God would give my students the ability to even begin understanding how much the Lord loved them. One day an illustration popped into my brain (wonder where it came from), and I asked my students to imagine themselves creating a Playdough™ world with people that would really come to life. They would be like a god to those people. I wove the story of their created world for a while and then asked them to imagine that the people ceased to believe they were real and taught their children that there were no such things as kindly giants that created them. I described a rebellion in Playdough™ world. Then I asked them if they would be willing to become a Playdough™ person and die for their rebellious creatures. Suddenly the light came on in a 6th grader’s head, and he said, “Miss Hale! God created us from clay. We are the Playdough™ people, and Jesus did come into our world to die for us!” The room was silent for a moment as this truth sank in. I thought this would be the highlight of our week in Bible class. However, the next day we read the verses above. I asked the class if anyone could explain what they meant. A student raised his hand and said, “Isn’t that what God did for us yesterday? He put that story in your head to help us all understand his love.” What a teachable moment supplied by the grace of God! I know those students were being given a firm foundation of biblical truth, and I now pray that they are continuing to be filled with all God’s Spirit has to offer them as many of them are raising children of their own.
My (Susan’s) “aha moment” of understanding the magnitude of God’s love for me came when I began elementary school in a pilot program of mainstreaming disabled children into the regular classroom. My wonderful first grade teacher’s aide consistently demonstrated kindness, understanding, and love toward me. Instead of greeting me with “Good morning, Susan,” she would say something like, “How’s my sweetheart?” or “How’s my darling this morning?” Before I even entered the classroom, I was feeling over ten feet tall because of the way she exemplified God’s love to me. She was truly my “Jesus with skin on.” I had surrendered my life to Jesus at the age of four. However, I lived in an extremely dysfunctional home. But when I went to school each day, God made sure I felt His love through the compassion of Mrs. M who helped school to be a place I could shine.
Heart check: Does the way you treat others consistently demonstrate God’s love to them?
Father, help us to pray powerfully for fellow believers as Paul did. We pray the verses above for our family and friends and ourselves right now. Help us to grasp your love and be filled to the brim with your Spirit as was Susan’s teacher’s aide.