READING: Exodus 13-15, Psalm 114, Ephesians 3
Paul’s prayer for his readers in Ephesians 3 includes these phrases: “I pray that you, being rooted and firmly established in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width, height and depth of God’s love, and to know Christ’s love that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Eph 3:17-18). In particular, I’m struck by Paul’s desire that the Ephesians might comprehend and know the love of God that He extends to the world. Paul uses the images of “length,” “width,” “height,” and “depth” to speak of the vast nature of God’s love. In the words of one scholar, God’s love as Paul described it is “wide enough to reach the whole world and beyond (1:9, 10, 20). It is long enough to stretch from eternity to eternity (1:4–6, 18; 3:9). It is high enough to raise both Gentiles and Jews to heavenly places in Christ Jesus (1:13; 2:6). It is deep enough to rescue people from sin’s degradation and even from the grip of Satan himself (2:1–5; 6:11, 12).”*
The fact is that God’s love is so magnanimous that no human image can fully capture it. All the combined ways that humans measure anything cannot fully show the measure of God’s love. It’s everlasting. It’s forgiving. It’s patient. It’s healing. It’s transforming. And, God extends that love to all – including me.
Today, I can only sing the words to “I Stand Amazed in the Presence.” I encourage you to listen to these lyrics and join me in rejoicing in the love of God.
PRAYER: “Lord, I cannot comprehend Your love—but I sure can thank You for it!”
TOMORROW’S READING: Weekend is for catch-up and review
*Wood, A. S. (1981). Ephesians. In F. E. Gaebelein (Ed.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Ephesians through Philemon (Vol. 11, p. 52). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.
