![]() For the entire series, please visit /united-for-unity-posts.Christian iPhone Wallpaper: Collection by Rooted and Groundedįor me, it is the last thing I see before I shut my eyes and the first thing I see when I wake up (other than my husband haha!) Our phones are our greatest tools, and I definitely think it is all about how we use them! I can get endlessly sucked into scrolling through all the things, or I can be productive for work and home or for my personal goals. Each Thursday, through 2018, I will release a post. During the series, I also wrote about Ephesians in sixty-plus short, devotionally styled posts. He envisions a people who are completely overtaken by the relentless love of Jesus Christ, for only then will we change the world.ĭuring Fall 2017, I taught Calvary Monterey the book of Ephesians. So Paul prays for us, not to love Christ more, but to understand Christ’s love more. There is no sin too deep for Him to rescue a person from. The love of Christ has depth, for Paul has shown us that, though we were dead in sin and followers of the flesh, the world, and the devil, we find escape in Jesus. The love of Christ has height, for Paul has taught us it has raised believers to be seated with Christ in the heavenly places. The love of Christ has length, for Paul has shown us it is as long as eternity, having been established from the foundation of the world. The love of Christ has breadth, for Paul has taught us it is wide enough for the whole world, Jew and Gentile alike. Perhaps these are mere expressions, a playful twist of fine literature, but a study of Ephesians shows us Christ’s love in all these directions. He saw it as wide and long and high and deep. It is a fortress to be scaled, a wilderness to be charted. To him, the love of Christ was a vast expanse in all directions. ”…may have strength to comprehend…and to know the love of Christ…” ![]() Paul also prayed for us to have the strength to comprehend the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge. The believer, grounded in this love, is made stable for every season of life. It is far better to be utterly convinced of His love and then respond to it through a radical life of good works. Much of the Christian life comes down to this relationship with Christ’s love, for many try to build a life of good works and meaning, attempting to do something radical for God, in an attempt to receive His love. Like a structure which cannot stand firm and upright without a solid foundation, so the love of Christ provides a solid base for the believer. He used a picture of a building to describe this relationship to Christ’s love. Paul also prayed for us to allow the love of Christ to become our foundation. The believer, rooted in Christ's love, is made strong to endure every trial and drought and storm. God is also caring He demonstrated that love in sending His Son to die for us. God is powerful, vanquishing death, trials, and sin through the blood of His own Son. The cross of Christ shows us both views are wrong. The love of Christ is a fortress for the soul, for trials lead to a temptation to view God as inept or uncaring. We need God to make us firm in every windstorm of life. We need, in the face of such trials, stability. In fact, new pains are added to them in the form of spiritual attacks, persecutions, and the burden of gospel work. ![]() When rooted in the love of Christ one can walk through a drought of earthly love, but still be fruitful and alive because of a secret love deep below the surface, the love of Christ.Įvery person endures the tears and trials of life. But the believer who is rooted in the love of Christ has an endless supply of nourishment love is perpetually theirs. Every person is in search of love, and this quest for love can cause the worst of behavior at times. Just as the roots of a tree are to sink down deep into the earth in search of nutrients and stability, so the love of Christ nourishes and stabilizes the believer. He used a picture from nature to describe our relationship to Christ’s love. Paul prayed for us to allow the love of Christ to become our root system. It is a love, he confesses, which “surpasses knowledge,” but should still root and ground us, running into our the core of our motivations and desires. ![]() Here, he continues his request by asking that the love of Christ would establish us. Paul, longing for the church to become fully united to the love of Christ, has prayed for the Spirit to build up our inner person and for Christ to settle in our 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…” (Ephesians 3:17–19).
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