Deeply, Honestly, Passionately and Freely

Ephesians 3:14-21 (GWTW) This is the reason I kneel in the presence of the Father from whom all the families in heaven and on earth receives its name. I'm asking God to give you a gift from the wealth of His glory. I pray that He would give you inner strength and power through His spirit. Then Christ will live in you through faith. I also pray that love may be the ground into which you sink your roots and on which you have your foundation. This way, with all of God's people you will be able to understand how wide, long, high and deep his love is. You will know Christ's love, which goes far beyond any knowledge. I am praying this so that you may be completely filled with God.

 Glory belongs to God, whose power is at work in us. By this power He can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine. Glory belongs to God in the church and in Christ Jesus for all time and eternity Amen.

 ...and I too am lifting this prayer over us all today so that we may be completely filled with God.

When I got really serious about changing how I saw my future, where I was supposed to be headed and how God intended me to get there, I stopped. It was not a stop in your tracks, dead stop. At least not at first. I did not have that type of faith. I had the faith of a mustard seed. But as we know even that is enough to move the mental mountains I had piled onto my life...piece by trashy piece. I thank God that He is the one that levels things and I thank God that through the past 30 years He was heading me back to where I was supposed to be in the first place. That is how wide, long, high and deep his love is and this is what we strive to show individuals each day as we minister to them deeply, honestly, passionately but mostly freely.

"With wings that will carry, cover and lift"
Love,
Candace

God’s Devotion

That you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend . . . the love of Christ which passes knowledge. —Ephesians 3:17-19

 

In 1826, the British author Thomas Carlyle married Jane Welsh, who also was an accomplished writer. She dedicated herself to his success and served him wholeheartedly.

Because of a stomach ailment and a nervous disorder, he had a rather ornery temperament. So she made special meals for him and tried to keep the house as quiet as possible so he could do his writing.

Thomas didn’t often recognize Jane’s helpful spirit nor did he spend much time with her. However, he wrote this about her to his mother: “I may say in my heart that she . . . loves me with a devotedness which is a mystery to me how I have ever deserved. She . . . looks with such soft cheerfulness into my gloomy countenance, that new hope passed into me every time I met her eye.”

We too have Someone who loves us with a devotedness that is a mystery how we as sinners ever deserved it! He is God the Father, “who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all” (Rom. 8:32). His love is wide, long, deep, and high and exceeds our knowledge (Eph. 3:18-19).

Understanding and appreciating God’s love is so vital that Paul prayed for the Ephesians to be “rooted and grounded” in it (v.17). May that be our experience as well. — by Anne Cetas http://www.rbc.org/

I can always count on God, my heavenly Father,

For He changes not; He always is the same;

Yesterday, today, forever, He is faithful,

And I know He loves me, praise His holy name. —Felten

There is no greater joy than to know God loves you.