24 September. Paul explains the vast extent of Jesus's love
"So I bow in prayer before the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth gets its true name. I ask the Father in his great glory to give you the power to be strong inwardly through his Spirit."
"I pray that Christ will live in your hearts by faith and that your lives will be strong in love and be built on love. And I pray that you and all God's holy people will have the power to understand the greatness of Christ's love - how wide and how long and how high and how deep that love is."
"Christ's love is greater than anyone can ever know, but I pray that you will be able to know that love. Then you can be filled with the fullness of God."
"With God's power working in us, God can do much, much more than anything we can ask or imagine. To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus for all time, for ever and ever. Amen."
(Romans 3:14-21)
It's difficult to appreciate just how much Jesus loves us. But Paul tries to explain to the Ephesian believers the greatness of God's love through Jesus.
He starts by reminding them that they are family. God loves us because we are his children. He loves us because he is a loving Father. He created us and he cares about us.
So Paul bows his head in prayer "before the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth gets its true name." (Ephesians 3:15) He is our Father in heaven, and we are his children on earth.
Paul then prays that God will fill the believers to overflowing with the power of the Holy Spirit - so that the love of God is living within them. "I ask the Father in his great glory to give you the power to be strong inwardly through his Spirit." (Ephesians 3:16)
Jesus's love living within them empowers them to love others, so "that your lives will be strong in love and be built on love." (Ephesians 3:17)
Paul then attempts to explain the vastness of Jesus's love: "I pray that you and all God's holy people will have the power to understand the greatness of Christ's love - how wide and how long and how high and how deep that love is." (Ephesians 3:18)
In fact, says Paul, "Christ's love is greater than anyone can ever know, but I pray that you will be able to know that love. Then you can be filled with the fullness of God." (Ephesians 3:19)
This means that believers are equipped with enough love in their hearts to do amazing things for others: "With God's power working in us, God can do much, much more than anything we can ask or imagine." (Ephesians 2:20)
If anyone had told us that, together with our family and friends, we would help our Christian brothers and sisters finance a school in India, purchase a field to feed orphans in Kenya, buy a minibus in Gambia, and fund several life-saving surgical operations in these countries, we'd have said, "No way!" But with God's help, each of these actually happened - which goes to show that amazing things become possible if we allow God's love and power to work through us.
The photo shows the field bought to grow crops to feed the children in the orphanage at Kisii in Kenya.
You can read more from Paul's Letter to the Ephesians @ https://www.thebiblejourney.org/…/15-paul…/gods-secret-plan/