Possessing to Give
If someone offered me a million dollars to teach a molecular biology class today, I could not do it with any form of accuracy. Because I don’t carry with me the knowledge or experience necessary to disseminate to a classroom. You can’t give what you don’t possess.
I was in a Bible study with some buddies the other night and we were going through Ephesians 3. At the end of the chapter, Paul prays this prayer over the believers in Ephesus:
“I pray that from His glorious, unlimited resources He will empower you with inner strength through His Spirit. 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. 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. 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” (Ephesians 3:16-19).
The first half of Paul’s letter has been centered around “who you are” as a Christian. He concludes his comments with this prayer. The second half of the letter is all about “your conduct” as a Christian. The final thought he believes his readers need to know is simply this – you need to know just how loved you are by God Himself.
This is for you and I today, friends. Yes, there are theological truths that help in our understanding of who God is. There are practices we ought to employ. The list goes on. But at the end of the day God is love (1 John 4:7-21). And we are only able to love because God first loved us (1 John 4:19).
Think about it this way, as believers, we are like a USB cube. A USB cube is made to charge things. To be a conductor of electricity from the source to another object. Without these chargers, our devices would be rendered useless as soon as their batteries died. In the same way, USB cubes are useless unless they are plugged into an electrical source. It’s the “rooting” or plugging into that enables the cube to then have the capacity to operate as it was intended to.
We, as Christians, are only ever able to walk as we were intended to when we are plugged into the love of Jesus. We can use ourselves for different things, in the same way a USB cube can be used for playing catch with, scratching your back, or kicking around, but none of those things are what it was made for. Paul understood this, which is why he prays this prayer begging God to empower the believer to understand more fully the greatness of God’s love for them individually.
There are things for you and me to do with our lives. First and foremost, we need to understand that we are loved. Understanding God’s love for you is like being plugged into the wall, or like a tree rooting itself in the ground. The beautiful thing is this, we will never have full understanding of God’s love – it’s too big. Which means that our roots will only ever have deeper waters to pursue as we walk with Jesus during our time here on earth. The deeper we go, the more mature we become and the firmer we stand.
Praying the Scriptures over yourself is a wise practice as you walk with God. Friend, pray this prayer of Paul’s over yourself. Commit these words to memory. Ask God, today, to reveal just a little more how much He loves you. God first loved us, so that we can love Him back, love ourselves, and love others. This equation only works by first beginning to walk in the understanding that God loves you. So, plug in today. Root yourself in His love. Let’s live the intended way. You can’t give what you don’t possess.
