Rooted and Grounded

Day 267: Ephesians 3:1-21

“...so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” - Ephesians 3:17-19 ESV

Agape is the Greek word Paul uses here for love. More than any other gift that comes from the hand of God, this is the one that makes us either rise or fall. This is because we are constantly in need of its refilling. When we run dry on love, we start treating others as objects to be used. When we lack love, we start looking to God as a cosmic vending machine. If people, or God, don't give us what we want, we land in disappointment and bitterness.

Yet when we are rooted and grounded in love, we see people as image-bearers of God. We also start to see God as a loving Father, One who wants what's best for us.

Everything God does is purposeful and is ultimately for our good. We may not understand it or even be able to explain it, but we know that God's love is time-tested and will take us to places unattainable by our own effort.

Paul is right. Jesus' love surpasses knowledge!

"That is what Paul’s goal is in this prayer and, in many ways, in this letter: That God’s love and wisdom and strength might so permeate them that they become mature as a people." - Darrell Bock