WEEK TWO : Fill me with your heart
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“For this reason, I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts, through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge — that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”
Ephesians 3:14-19
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Sunday//Rest
Listen to the song Build My Life by Pat Barrett and meditate on the descriptors of who God is. Access the song here: https://youtu.be/QZW4_8_zCBE
Monday//Day 1: Filled Through the Spirit
Don’t you just love a good story where the underdog rises to the top? What is it about seeing someone “pull themselves up by their bootstraps” and rise victorious against all odds that we love so much? There is something woven in the fabric of our culture that praises the hard worker, the determined, the one who makes something of themselves by the sweat of their brow. Now, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, however Ephesians reminds us that when it comes to our spiritual life, this concept doesn’t exist.
Ephesians 3:14-16 reads:
“For this reason, I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being” —
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Look at that last sentence (verse 16) again and notice who is the agent behind the action.
The Father.
HE is the one strengthening us with HIS power through HIS Spirit. All of this flows out of HIS glorious riches.
There is no mention of our bootstraps or sweaty brows. Our role is simply to receive. The first realization when it comes to being filled with the Father’s heart is that it is His work to do in us. If we are trying to be filled or working on being filled, then maybe we need to repent from thinking too highly of ourselves.
Ephesians 3 reminds us that our Father is rich and He has strength and power for our inner being. This is a reality of being a child of God. Yet, we must remember that we are not the filler but the filled.
Friends, there is nothing we can do to earn the strength and power that God offers us through Jesus Christ. We do not have to DO anything. We simply receive.
In what ways are you striving in your faith or trying to earn something from the Father? What would it look like to simply receive?
How can you offer the freedom of the Father’s rich love to others?
Prayer:
Generous God, fill me with your heart. You are rich beyond comprehension and in your goodness, you desire to lavish your love on me. I let go of the lie that I have to do anything to get something from you or earn something from you. Help me to walk in the freedom of simply receiving. Thank you for your strength and power which are mine today because of your glorious riches.
Amen.
Tuesday//Day 2: Exactly at Home
Yesterday we began reading Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3:14-16 as we pray “fill me with Your heart”. What is the purpose behind Paul’s opening line in Ephesians 3:14-19? Why does he ask the Father to strengthen us with power through his Spirit?
“...so that Christ may dwell in your hearts, through faith.” - Ephesians 3:17a
According to my interlinear Bible app, to dwell means to inhabit; to pervade; to settle down as a permanent resident; to be exactly at home.
In the Biblical world, the heart represented the affective center of one’s being. It was the place from where thoughts, desires, passions, purposes, and affections were formed. It represented one’s character and inner self.
Now what about those last two words: through faith.
Hebrews describes faith this way, “Now faith is being sure of what you hope for and certain of what you do not see” (Hebrews 11:1). It is a confidence that is not rooted in the physical. Faith is always a gift from God and never something that can be produced by people (once again, no boot straps or sweaty brows necessary). It’s God’s divine persuasion which is distinct from human confidence yet involves it. God continuously pours out faith in the surrendered believer so they can know Him and His heart. So even when it comes to faith our part is not to create but to receive.
Paul prays that we will be strengthened with power through God’s Spirit so that Jesus can fill us and be exactly at home in the center of our entire being, through God’s gift of faith.
Take a moment to marinate on that.
What does this say about who God is? What does your heart want to say to Him right now?
What does this say about who you are?
How does this inform the way you see others?
Prayer:
My Jesus, my Savior, fill me with your heart. I want you to be exactly at home, permanently settled, pervading my entire being. Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. Amen.
Wednesday//Day 3: Love that Prefers
This week we are asking God to fill us with His heart as we meditate on Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3:14-19. Today we focus in on the little phrase at the end of verse 17: “And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,”
In the horticulture world, the term “established” refers to the point at which a newly planted tree, shrub, or ground cover begins to produce new growth. New growth appears as fresh foliage or new stems and is an indicator of the development of a healthy and widespread root system. A healthy root system is essential for plants to absorb life-giving nutrients and moisture.
Being rooted and established is about stability, security, and survival.
It’s also about growth and creating new life.
Notice that Paul doesn’t pray that we WILL become rooted and established but instead states it as a reality. We have become rooted and established. It is who we are in Christ. And what are we rooted and established in? Love.
You may have heard that there are different translations for the word “love” in the Bible that depict different types of love (brotherly love, romantic love, etc.). Of these loves, there is one (agape) that is used to represent the highest form of love - God’s love. This is the form of love that Paul uses in this prayer.
The Greek word agape focuses on preference. It is love that prefers. In the New Testament it typically refers to divine love — God’s love. So, Paul’s prayer could be said this way: I pray that you, being rooted and established in what God prefers…
What does God prefer? What does He love?
You.
People.
His children.
The world.
How do we know this? John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.”
This love is sacrificial. This love prefers others above oneself. This love chose us while we were still rejecting it. This is the love that, through the power and indwelling of Christ, we are rooted and established in.
How does the meaning of agape change the way you see God in light of this verse? How does it change the way you see yourself?
Today, how can you live out your reality of being rooted and established in love?
Prayer:
My Jesus, My Savior, fill me with your heart. I am overwhelmed by your sacrificial love. Thank you for preferring me and choosing to save me. Remind me that, in You, I am already rooted and established in this love that prefers. Give me your power to live that out today. Amen.
Thursday//Day 4: O the Deep Deep Love of Jesus
Ask the Holy Spirit to open your ears to hear the Voice of Truth as we dive into our passage today.
Paul prays that followers of Jesus, who are rooted and established in love,
“may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge” (Ephesians 3:18-19a).
The ESV translates the first half of verse 18 as: “may have strength to comprehend”.
The INT translates it as: “you may be fully able to comprehend”.
What is Paul praying we have the ability to fully comprehend? Something incomprehensible - the immeasurable multi-dimensional love of Christ. Paul is praying that we are able to understand, together in community, every dimension of the love of Jesus. It’s a paradox - to know something that is unknowable. He’s essentially praying that our minds will be blown and our worlds will expand as we dwell upon the immense love of Christ.
How many songs have been composed with this very theme in mind?
The love of God is greater far than tongue or pen can ever tell.
It goes beyond the highest star and reaches to the lowest hell.
(The Love of God by Frederick M. Lehman)
O the deep, deep love of Jesus!
Vast, unmeasured, boundless, free,
rolling as a mighty ocean
in its fullness over me.
(O the Deep Deep Love of Jesus by S. Trevor Francis)
O the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God
(Reckless Love by Cory Asbury)
But Paul’s prayer is more than an intellectual comprehension. The word “know” in verse 19 is about more than head knowledge. It’s a knowing that comes through personal experience. There is a real experience of God’s love and Presence in the life of Christ’s followers.
The love God shown to us in Jesus Christ - the way God has pursued us with his faithful love and kindness, forgiven us and adopted us as His children, and filled us with His life now and for eternity - is a real experience that we can daily walk in and yet never reach the end of.
God’s love for you is immeasurable. God’s love for the world is immeasurable.
Paul was called to preach salvation to the non-Jewish world, aka the Gentiles. The idea of God extending His love and promises outside of the Jewish people - God’s chosen people - was not a part of his cultural or religious context. Yet, in his obedience, he saw Gentiles coming to know the love of God through Jesus. He had personally experienced the expansion of the Kingdom of God in powerful ways.
So, as I read Ephesians 3:18-19, I picture Paul, sitting in a prison cell writing this letter, marveling at the vast love of God that reaches past cultural and religious boundaries. I imagine him simply soaking in the wonder of it all - that God’s love would break through so many barriers, calling together a multi-cultural group of people and binding them together in ways that previously seemed impossible. Perhaps it was out of this sense of joy, wonder, and overwhelming gratitude that he prayed “that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge”
Seedbed author, J.D. Walt describes the prayer this way:
This is a prayer for an ever-growing capacity to perceive revelation. Jesus Christ, by the Word of God through the Spirit of God is always working to wake us up from one dimensional to multi-dimensional; from one degree of glory to the next.
Today, could you set aside time to simply soak in the wonder of the vast love of God in Christ Jesus.
Prayer:
My Jesus, My Savior, fill me with your heart. Let the Truth of Your deep love for me settle deep within my very being. Let the Truth of Your deep love for my neighbor compel me to action. Amen.
Friday//Day 5: Filled and flooded by God
Yesterday we soaked in the wonder of the width and length and height and depth of the love of Christ, as we meditated on Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3:18-19. Paul's desire for his readers to grow in God's love has a specific purpose - “that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:19b)
Knowing the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, directs us to being filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. To be filled with something is to be in its grip; to have that thing become the controlling influence in our lives. So, to be filled “to the measure of all the fullness of God” means that He is the controlling influence of our lives. To be filled is to be conscious of and yielded to His Presence.
“The fulness of God’” is another expression for the whole sum of all the energies, powers, and attributes of the divine nature, the total Godhead in its abundance. This phrase is mentioned only one other time in Scripture, in Colossians 1:19: "For in [Jesus] all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell." There, the focus is on the greatness of God which exists in Jesus, clearly labelling Jesus as divine. In a similar manner, Paul wants his audience to be filled with Jesus as much as possible. He knows that love, in both thoughts and actions, is the key to this taking place in the life of a believer
Take a moment to marinate on this.
How do you experience this fullness? Where do you lack this fullness?
One important thing to note is that the “you” in this verse is plural. Paul isn’t talking about an individual filling but a collective one. He is praying that we all may become a body wholly filled and flooded by God.
The giving of strength by the Holy Spirit makes possible the indwelling of Christ in us, His Church, experientially. This leads to “the fullness of God” in us, His Church.
Francis Foulkes, a theologian and commentator, expresses the heart of Ephesians 3:19 well: “He [Paul] thus prays ultimately that they may receive not any attribute of God, or any gift of his, not love, not knowledge, not strength, alone or in combination—but no less than the very highest he can pray for, the full indwelling of God. Of course, the eternal God can never be limited to the capacity of any one, or all, of his sinful creatures; at the same time Paul does not want to pray for anything less than that God’s people may be filled to the very fullest of himself that he seeks to bring into their lives” (The Letter of Paul to the Ephesians: An Introduction and Commentary, Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub., 1989, p. 114).
In His grace, God chooses to communicate with His children - the Church- offering them new life in Christ, indwelling them by the Holy Spirit, and ultimately filling them with His fullness. Through being rooted and established together in the love of Jesus, we can truly bring fullness and abundant life in our community.
How does the communal nature of this prayer change the way you think and live? What would it look like for our church body to be filled to all the fullness of God?
Prayer:
My Jesus, My Savior, fill me with your heart. My Jesus, My Savior, fill us - Your church - with your heart.
Saturday//Day 6: Divine Reading
We’ve set aside today to engage in a spiritual practice called Lectio Divina (Divine Reading) with this week’s passage. Each day we have heard the voice of others surrounding this rich passage, which has been good. Today, we intentionally pause to seek the voice of the Holy Spirit as we sit with Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3:14-19. Have a pen and paper ready.
Begin by sitting comfortably, placing both feet on the ground, with posture upright and hands open on your lap as if waiting to receive a gift from God. Then, abandon any agenda, worries or thoughts you bring to this space and prayerfully entrust these things to God. Ask for the grace to be receptive to what God will speak to you through this Scripture reading.
Slowly and prayerfully read the entire passage out loud. Listen for a particular word or phrase that sticks out to you at this moment and sit with it for a time.
Ephesians 3:14-19
“For this reason, I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts, through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge — that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”
Read the passage again, slowly. As you re-engage the text, let the word or phrase that stood out become your invitation to dialogue with God. What is God saying to you in these words? What do you want to say to God? What feelings do these words raise up in you? Share your answers with God.
Ephesians 3:14-19
“For this reason, I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts, through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge — that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”
Read the text a final time. As you do, release the word or phrase you have been praying with. Be still and rest in God’s embrace. What gift has God given you to take away from this prayer? To what action might God be inviting you?
Ephesians 3:14-19
“For this reason, I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts, through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge — that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”
Thank God for this gift and invitation as you conclude in prayer.
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