“And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, 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 3:17b-19
My friends, I have a few questions for you. What does it mean to you to grasp the love of Christ? Is God’s love real to you? Have you ever struggled with feeling God’s love?
Ephesians 3:17b-19 may be one of my favorite passages in the Bible. Pondering the phrases, “…rooted and established in love…” and “…power…to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ…” causes my mind to picture the enormity of God’s love for me.
Picturing the enormity of God’s love takes me back to when my husband and I visited Angel Oak near Charleston, SC. Angel Oak is a Southern Live Oak tree that is estimated to be 400-500 years old and stands 66.5 feet tall and is 28 feet in circumference.
As I stood at the base of Angel Oak every ounce of my being wanted to start climbing the branches that wound themselves up and down and in and out of each other. But alas, the park rangers didn’t look to kindly to my climbing the tree. Instead, I stood among the branches and gazed at the glory of God’s creation – overwhelmed by the beauty, majesty and intricacy of what surrounded me.
Angel Oak reminds me how each one of us is rooted and established in Christ’s love. The roots of Angel Oak grow deep into the ground enabling it to grow strong and withstand the effects of hurricane force winds. These roots bring nourishment from underground water sources.
When we are rooted and established in Christ’s love we stand firmly grounded when life hits hard.
We have the power or inherent strength to survive the hurricane force winds of broken hearts and shattered dreams, doubt, discouragement and disillusionment from unanswered prayers, worry and fear of a bad diagnosis, or stress from financial insecurity that threaten to bend and break us.
Standing under the canopy and within the branches of Angel Oak I felt overwhelmed by the enormity of its width and height. Branches scooped down into the ground at my feet only to rise again a few feet away spreading out just above the earth. Large limbs towered above me reaching high into the sky.
Picturing this scene reminds me of a quote from commentator David Guzick. When writing about Ephesians 3:17b-19 he says,
“To come to an understanding of the dimensions of God’s love, we must come to the Cross. The Cross pointed four ways, essentially in every direction, because…
~ God’s love is wide enough to include every person
~ God’s love is long enough to last throughout all eternity
~ God’s love is deep enough to reach the worst sinner
~ God’s love is high enough to take us to heaven.”
Rooted in the nourishment of God’s Word
Remember earlier when I mentioned the roots of the Angel Oak brought nourishment from underground water sources? We too have a source of living water that nourishes our body. That source of living water is Jesus.
“Jesus answered, ‘Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
John 4:13,14
When we spend time with God through studying His Word and prayer we receive His nourishment and grasp His Love for us.
Grasping how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ
When we break down “to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ” a little more we see this echoed throughout the Bible.
Wide – John 3:16 tells us, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” The love of Jesus is so wide that he stretched out his arms to die on the cross for each one of us and for ALL of our sins.
Long – God has always loved you and me from before time began and will love us for eternity. Jeremiah 31:3 “…I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving kindness.” In this verse the word for everlasting means perpetual, indefinite or unending future. God’s love will never end.
Deep and High – Psalm 108:4 “For great is your love, higher than the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies.” In this passage we see David praising God because he trusts that God will deliver his people because of His love, faithfulness and glory. God’s faithfulness is beyond measure.
When we “know this love that surpasses knowledge” we move beyond head or intellectual knowledge to heart or experiential knowledge. We truly grasp the love of Christ when we experience God’s presence, strength and source of living water through the storms of life.
Remember the questions I asked you earlier?
What does it mean to you to grasp the love of Christ? Is God’s love real to you? Have you ever struggled with feeling God’s love?
What are your answers to those questions now?
In His Calm,
