During this season of Lenten reflection, I am seeking deep spiritual growth in God’s love. I always pray for growth, but something within me senses that I must gain a greater understanding of His pure love for the days ahead. I believe there are deep places within God’s love that Christ has made available to us, and I desire the drive and inner strength to experience them fully.
God knows my tomorrows—and, by the way, He knows your tomorrows too. Whether or not we fully grasp it as truth, we were created as spiritual beings in God’s image. Yet sin robbed us of our ability to faithfully bear His name. Jesus came to love sinners back into the family of God and rescue us from our own self-destructive tendencies.
Believers—those who are born from above—bear the name of Jesus and are sealed by the Spirit. Satan does not want you to understand that you are one-of-a-kind, deeply loved by God. No matter how far off the righteous path you may have wandered in life, God’s love still calls you back. He desires that you know the depths of His love—deep, abiding, and pure.
As we continue our journey toward Jerusalem and the cross of Christ during this Lenten season, we pause to reflect on the spiritual growth that divine Love offers us. Learning to wisely discern the lessons God gives us can be challenging because the world wants us to believe that simply having an “idea” about God is enough to experience divine blessing. But an idea cannot save a life from eternal judgment—we all need the God-Man, Jesus, the world’s Christ [Creator/Savior/Lord].
In today’s New Testament passage, the apostle Paul reminds God’s people that we must press in to know and experience “how wide, how long, how high, and how deep His love is” (v. 18). God is making us complete in His love, and we need spiritual strength to grasp it.
Do you know how much God loves you? His love is patient and long-suffering toward you. His love is higher than anything offered at an earthly level. His love is so deep that it completes the transformation process within us—forming the likeness of Christ in our lives (v. 19).
So do not run from the challenges of life. In Christ, we have been empowered with unlimited spiritual resources and understanding. Pray and ask the Spirit to help you run toward every challenge with God’s strength. And friends, let us choose to love long, high, and deep like Jesus—because the power of God has been made available for every experience we face.
Ephesians 3:14–19 (NLT) Paul’s Prayer for Spiritual Growth 14 When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father [of our Christ]. 15 the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth [from whom every family in heaven/earth takes its name]. 16 I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. 17 Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. 18 And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. 19 May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank You for the growth You promise to bring to those who courageously press into the deep waters of life with You. Just as You separated the land from the sea in the beginning, we ask that You separate our hearts from selfishness. Root us deeply in Your love and strengthen us by Your Spirit so that we may know the vastness of Christ’s love. We offer our hearts to You today for the glory of Your name. In Jesus’ name, Amen.