Ephesians 3:14-21 (NRSV)
Read Ephesians 3:14-21 on biblegateway.com
Verse 14For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, Verse 15from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. Verse 16I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, Verse 17and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. Verse 18I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, Verse 19and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Verse 20Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, Verse 21to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
Devotion
Today’s reading takes us beyond concerns for feeding our hunger to feeding our very identity: “so you may be filled with the fullness of God.”
Imagine a pie chart of your life. There are wedges for work, leisure, family, fitness, entertainment, church activities—you know your list. They all keep you busy, sometimes more than busy. It often seems there aren’t enough hours in the day to fit it all in. And then someone says you need to include God in the pie chart. You look but can’t find anywhere to add a wedge. Still you know something is missing. There is an emptiness that needs to be filled. Now imagine you have a disc of God’s presence. Instead of wedging it in, you ask God to occupy the center of your life, overlapping every wedge. Suddenly God becomes the center from which all your life’s aspects spring. God becomes the center of all that you are. And God fills your whole life, 24/7. Thanks be to God.
Prayer
God of Our Lives, fill us. Let our lives flow from you, our center. Amen.
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