Dwell: May 27, 2013

TODAY’S WORD FOR MONDAY MAY 27, 2013.

DWELL

DEFINITION:

Live; reside; abide.

SCRIPTURE:

So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3: 17-19.

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:

These three verses written by the Apostle Paul to the believers in the church at Ephesus has a wealth of truths for us today. We will take a few moments today to share Paul’s thoughts with you. 

Every believer is indwelt by Christ at the moment one accepts Jesus as Lord and Savior. Often we need to be reminded that Christ became part of us, dwelling in us, at that moment. But Christ is only at home with us, and finds comfort and satisfaction with us, when our hearts are cleansed of sin to make room for the filling with His Holy Spirit.

Paul tells the Ephesians that it is through faith we, as believers, are made clean, and become yielded to Christ’s Lordship over us. Paul reminds us that we are to be rooted and grounded in love. The kind of love that Paul speaks of is Christ’s love. Believers are to establish in their lives a strong foundation of self-giving, serving love for not only God but for fellow believers.

Paul tells us that from the human perspective we cannot understand the fullness of God’s love apart from genuine, Spirit-empowered love found in our own life when we have Christ dwelling in us. God’s love is immeasurable and surpasses human comprehension. Only those who have accepted God’s great gift of love, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross, can begin to understand the fullness of God’s love.

When Paul refers to the breadth, length, height and depth of God’s love he is not talking about four different features of love but this is an effort by Paul to suggest the vastness and completeness of Christ’s love for us.

God’s love is so wide it covers the breadth of every human experience. God’s love is so long it continues through the length of our lives. God’s love is so high it reaches the heights of our elation and expectation. God’s love is so deep it reaches to the depths of our discouragement and despair.

Paul closes these three verses with the thought, to know the love of Christ. It is important to note that Paul is not talking about the love believers have for Christ, but the love of and from Christ that He places in the believers heart before they can truly and fully love Him or in fact anyone else. The love that Christ has for us is unfathomable and unlimited. Only we limit how much we can experience.

Every day in this section we talk about our KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE. Paul reminds us here that knowledge of Christ’s love for us is far beyond our capability of human reasoning and experience. It is only known by those who are truly God’s children who put their complete trust in Him daily.

We are to be filled up to all the fullness of God. To experience this fullness we are to be so strong spiritually, so compelled by divine love, and so totally yielded to the Lord that there is nothing left of self. Human understanding of the fullness of God is impossible, but believers can experience the greatness of God in their lives as a result of the indwelling of Christ and His Holy Spirit.

LEARNING:

Our memory verse for this week is found in Psalm 119:165:

Great peace have they which love Thy law: and nothing shall offend them.

PRAYER:

Help me to be rooted and grounded in Your love so that I am filled up with Your love. May the power of Your Word shape my life and equip me to share God’s message of love so that others can experience Christ dwelling in them.