Opening Prayer
Heavenly Father, grant us Your Spirit in Christ Jesus. Amen.
Text: Ephesians 3:13-21
Therefore I ask that you do not lose heart at my tribulations for you, which is your glory. For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height – to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.
Devotion
The love of Christ passes all knowledge. It includes the whole world so that He dies for all people; it flows like the widest stream of grace over the whole world, and it lasts from eternity to eternity so that its length is infinite. It descends into the deepest parts, suffers even the pain of death and has mercy on the lowliest of men, and it is seated on the throne in the highest parts and leads us to heavenly glory. In this love of Christ, the Father through His Holy Spirit wants to give us grace to be rooted and confirmed by faith. The Spirit enlightens us so that we believe this love and are inwardly assured that God in Christ loves us so infinitely, with such powerful love that conquers all sin and death, so that we entrust ourselves to it with all our heart. The deepest roots of our being grow firm in it, so that nothing can separate us from it. It is such a deep and strong union, and it is all so completely from God and by God that we dare ask men and angels: “Who can separate us from the love of Christ? … We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us (through Him, through Him!). For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 8). Then through faith He lives in our hearts, and we know this love that surpasses knowledge.
Are you frightened by the Apostle’s words? Do you think: “O I am far, far from that glorious state!” – Then humble yourself, and ask the God of love who did not spare His own Son for us to send you the Holy Spirit, and He will do it; humble yourself, but don’t give up! If you know that you are a lost sinner, if you believe that Jesus died for the whole world, and if your heart prays for cleansing in His blood, then you are truly received into the communion of saints, embraced in God’s eternal love, and are already His child in Christ and a branch on the Vine of life. It is God Himself who has done it, and He shall do it beyond whatever you pray for or understand. Don’t you believe that His love really is greater than you comprehend? Don’t you believe that the riches of His power overwhelm everything in you and around you that resists Him? “Yes, but do I dare believe this? Do I dare consider this as my own possession?” Shouldn’t you believe what is true? Didn’t God give His Son for you? Aren’t you baptized into His death and resurrection? Hasn’t His Spirit surely shown you your sin? Or have you done this yourself? Doesn’t the Spirit sigh within you, and don’t you thirst for His love? Thousands and thousands of times He yearned for you, and nothing else but His indwelling in you makes you cry out for the living God. Didn’t He have to give us the light of the Spirit to believe so that Christ’s power in us could conquer and show itself in patience and joy and the praise of the Lord!
Closing Prayer
This grant us, merciful heavenly Father, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
Hymn
O Jesus, Thou art mine
And I will e’er be Thine:
My heart, my soul, my living
To Thee, my God, I’m giving;
Completely take Thou me
And make whate’er can please Thee;
Yea, all my days now use me,
Till I become like Thee!
If I have only Thee,
Nothing can e’er shake me;
Not earth with its devices,
Not heav’n with all its prizes,
If only I am Thine;
For life and soul though dying,
It is no longer trying,
If Jesus still is mine.
Neuss: O Jesus, du er min L 532:1.7 tr. DeGarmeaux;
tune: O Jesus, du er min (Jensen’s Koralbog); alternate hymn: Thine forever, God of love ELH 515