Day 13 - Incomprehensible Love

Author: Mike Boon (staff)

Scripture:

“I pray that you may. . . fully take possession of. . . and have a personal, experiential knowledge of this love that surpasses every measure of what man can grasp. . . .”(Eph. 3:14-19)

Reflection:

My 3-year-old granddaughters can comprehend different cities, but they have no concept of different states.  My 5-year-old grandson, learning to count, can understand amounts that are represented by numbers up to a hundred plus.  I can wrap my head around 1 million, maybe even multiple millions.  But get to the billions and trillions (national debt, budget cuts, light years, temperature of the sun, etc.) and I need simple illustrations, word pictures.  Describe for me the state of Texas knee deep in silver dollars, the individual grains of California beach sand in a play box or a dump truck.

So it is with God’s love.  I can understand affection.  I can define agape.  I am growing in my ability to understand love within an intimate, time and stress-tested relationship.  However, truly having a grasp on the scope of God’s love requires something more than I can muster on my own.

The apostle Paul prayerfully intercedes for the Ephesians ( and “for all the Lord’s people”-v.18—that’s us) to have power through the Holy Spirit to “be rooted and established” in God’s love and to have a “personally intimate knowledge” of His love for us in Christ.

Even though the realization of this love comes from the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and so surpasses knowledge, it does not exclude knowledge gained from our study of scripture.  We must prepare ourselves for the work of the Spirit through diligent study, learning, objectively observing and evaluating scripture.

The intimate experience of God’s love in Christ for us enables us to fully be His servants, poured out for His service, obedient to His will, and filled with His fullness.  This Lenten season, may reflection on His Passion and Victory lead us to peace and conviction in a fresh experience of his “surpassing” knowledge-love.

Prayer for the Day: Holy Father, help me be obedient in love in this day so that I may be empowered by your Holy Spirit to experience, beyond knowledge, the depth, power, and life of your love for me.