In Saint Paul's 2nd prayer in the letter to the Ephesians, he does make one thing clear: Saint Paul does not have a clue to the depths of Christ love for us...no one does...no one has gone that far...
What we do know...it begins in our hearts. The word for heart is used often in the New Testament and derives from the Greek word "Kardia". It's where we get the word "cardiac" today and it means the center and life-giving force of our entire inner being.
It is in this place...our inner being...our hearts...that true life really begins. As Paul writes and challenges his readers to consider this thought: the reality of how His love actually grows...right inside of us.
Saint Paul uses plants as an analogy to convey his thoughts...plants which have been placed in fertile soil and given time to grow...it's roots going down deep, spreading, and given the freedom to find it's nutrients within the richness of the soil it has been planted.
What Saint Paul seems to indicate is that when His love for us...reaches a certain depth of our own hearts...it actually produces a "power"...a power that enables us to burst through the surface of the soil, a love for even the "worst of sinners"...of which we we were one ourselves...before we opened our hearts to the depth of His love. What I don't know is... if it takes a whole lot of "Miracle Grow"...or mulch...or watering...or whatever...for the love of Christ Jesus to surface from the depths of His love.
Yet, the truth remains...His love for us is not based on our own intellect, nor our knowledge...rather, He keeps his focus on our hearts...and He gives us His love...by this measure...how much our hearts are open...to Him!
Then Saint Paul goes on to relate to us...not one of us will ever grasp the fullness of His love for us. In fact, our minds can simply not comprehend it, our hearts are simply not large enough to receive it...what Paul was simply saying...it can not be done...not in these earthly bodies.
Even our most sincere prayers on our "best days"... our desires...our thoughts... they do no justice in attempting to comprehend the depths of His love for us. Our human bodies...are not just not enough...brains, heart, feelings...we just can't do it.
And here is the thing...His love for us is not based on our present circumstances...it is based on that "knowing within our hearts". Have you ever had someone say...they love you...even though they may have to sacrifice their life for the sake of others?...It's something like that...
Then...Saint Paul directs his attention to our Heavenly Father...and prays we are filled with His love for us...until we are completely and totally filled. It's like...the heart of Christ Jesus...is now in us...that others may know...the True Message...of His purpose as to why He came and saved us.
A Gleaning from Ephesians 3: 17-19
" Here then is my prayer...that Christ Jesus will find His place...more and more in your hearts. This very living, growing, and guarding Heart, all within you...as you allow your faith in Him...to be magnified in your very lives!
May the roots of your faith grow deep, deep within the fertile soil of His love...for it is there you will find comfort...in your hearts and the present circumstances you might find yourself in.
May you also experience His Power...the power to grow...in the luscious and fertile soil He has provided...like a plant whose roots grow deep into the soil...in this case...the fertile soil being the very depth of His undying love.
I pray you are able to grasp...to understand...and to feel the depth of His deep love for each of us. And this love He has for us...goes beyond our very hearts...and into the hearts of anyone who might sincerely call upon His Name.
For the sincere truth of all this is: the very thought of His love for us...has no beginning...and has no end. No one for sure really knows the depth of His love, or how it grows beyond ourselves... His love for us goes beyond the highest skies our own eyes can even see, and it's width goes beyond every continent known to man. This all begins in us...when we allow Him the chance...to gain entry into our hearts.
May the Lord Himself reach a point in your life...where His Presence that now lives within you...consumes you. Yet, even then no one really knows how far it extends after that...for no one has ever reached the full destination of His love for us."
NOTE: The irony in all this is the fact Saint Paul wrote these thoughts while in...prison...in Rome. Historians think this letter to the Ephesians might have been written around 61 A.D. In a short while, Saint Paul would be put to his death by the Roman Emperor Nero.
The Early Church was nothing less than a "war zone" at the time of this writing. False teachings, the Jewish/Gentile conflicts, and the very core of this new belief..."Salvation is received through His Grace", was but a few of the hostilities that were attacking the very birth of the Early Church.
Yet here, in the midst of all these battles the young church faced, along with Saint Paul about to face death himself for embracing the Message of the Gospel, Paul has his thoughts focused...focused on the depths of God's love for him...and for all believers who had joined the ranks within the Early Church.
Saint Paul concludes his letter to the Ephesians with these words:
A Gleaning from Ephesians 6: 23-24
" Good-bye my friends. May His love for you, mixed with your faith and trust in Him...all coming our way through this very God we believe in, who we now can call 'Our Father', made available through our Lord Jesus...May His Grace, His undeserved Favor toward us, and this incredible and incorruptible love that He has given ..be given and multiplied...to everyone of you! Amen {So be it}!"
What we do know...it begins in our hearts. The word for heart is used often in the New Testament and derives from the Greek word "Kardia". It's where we get the word "cardiac" today and it means the center and life-giving force of our entire inner being.
It is in this place...our inner being...our hearts...that true life really begins. As Paul writes and challenges his readers to consider this thought: the reality of how His love actually grows...right inside of us.
What Saint Paul seems to indicate is that when His love for us...reaches a certain depth of our own hearts...it actually produces a "power"...a power that enables us to burst through the surface of the soil, a love for even the "worst of sinners"...of which we we were one ourselves...before we opened our hearts to the depth of His love. What I don't know is... if it takes a whole lot of "Miracle Grow"...or mulch...or watering...or whatever...for the love of Christ Jesus to surface from the depths of His love.
Yet, the truth remains...His love for us is not based on our own intellect, nor our knowledge...rather, He keeps his focus on our hearts...and He gives us His love...by this measure...how much our hearts are open...to Him!
Then Saint Paul goes on to relate to us...not one of us will ever grasp the fullness of His love for us. In fact, our minds can simply not comprehend it, our hearts are simply not large enough to receive it...what Paul was simply saying...it can not be done...not in these earthly bodies.
Even our most sincere prayers on our "best days"... our desires...our thoughts... they do no justice in attempting to comprehend the depths of His love for us. Our human bodies...are not just not enough...brains, heart, feelings...we just can't do it.
And here is the thing...His love for us is not based on our present circumstances...it is based on that "knowing within our hearts". Have you ever had someone say...they love you...even though they may have to sacrifice their life for the sake of others?...It's something like that...
Then...Saint Paul directs his attention to our Heavenly Father...and prays we are filled with His love for us...until we are completely and totally filled. It's like...the heart of Christ Jesus...is now in us...that others may know...the True Message...of His purpose as to why He came and saved us.
A Gleaning from Ephesians 3: 17-19
" Here then is my prayer...that Christ Jesus will find His place...more and more in your hearts. This very living, growing, and guarding Heart, all within you...as you allow your faith in Him...to be magnified in your very lives!
May the roots of your faith grow deep, deep within the fertile soil of His love...for it is there you will find comfort...in your hearts and the present circumstances you might find yourself in.
May you also experience His Power...the power to grow...in the luscious and fertile soil He has provided...like a plant whose roots grow deep into the soil...in this case...the fertile soil being the very depth of His undying love.
I pray you are able to grasp...to understand...and to feel the depth of His deep love for each of us. And this love He has for us...goes beyond our very hearts...and into the hearts of anyone who might sincerely call upon His Name.
For the sincere truth of all this is: the very thought of His love for us...has no beginning...and has no end. No one for sure really knows the depth of His love, or how it grows beyond ourselves... His love for us goes beyond the highest skies our own eyes can even see, and it's width goes beyond every continent known to man. This all begins in us...when we allow Him the chance...to gain entry into our hearts.
May the Lord Himself reach a point in your life...where His Presence that now lives within you...consumes you. Yet, even then no one really knows how far it extends after that...for no one has ever reached the full destination of His love for us."
NOTE: The irony in all this is the fact Saint Paul wrote these thoughts while in...prison...in Rome. Historians think this letter to the Ephesians might have been written around 61 A.D. In a short while, Saint Paul would be put to his death by the Roman Emperor Nero.
The Early Church was nothing less than a "war zone" at the time of this writing. False teachings, the Jewish/Gentile conflicts, and the very core of this new belief..."Salvation is received through His Grace", was but a few of the hostilities that were attacking the very birth of the Early Church.
Yet here, in the midst of all these battles the young church faced, along with Saint Paul about to face death himself for embracing the Message of the Gospel, Paul has his thoughts focused...focused on the depths of God's love for him...and for all believers who had joined the ranks within the Early Church.
Saint Paul concludes his letter to the Ephesians with these words:
A Gleaning from Ephesians 6: 23-24
" Good-bye my friends. May His love for you, mixed with your faith and trust in Him...all coming our way through this very God we believe in, who we now can call 'Our Father', made available through our Lord Jesus...May His Grace, His undeserved Favor toward us, and this incredible and incorruptible love that He has given ..be given and multiplied...to everyone of you! Amen {So be it}!"
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