SATISFIED

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name.

I 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, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love.

I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Ephesians 3:14-21 (NRSV)

The underlying cause of whatever failure we experience in following Jesus is a low expectation of what the Lord will do in our lives. Most of the time we really have no conception of how far God is willing to go, how eager God is to satisfy our hearts with his own presence.

" so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God,"

Paul prays. Can you imagine the change that would sweep over any assembly if the answer to that prayer came to pass? Picture not only the praise that would rise up from our hearts toward heaven, but the transformation of our actual living.

If we're filled with the fullness of God….

our hearts will be like God's heart,

our tongue will be as God's tongue,

our eyes will see from God's point of view.

The sermon on the mount is a description of the kind of life a person will live when that person is filled with God's fullness. And it begins with the beatitudes which are promises of God's fullness.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven

– God's fullness.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted

– with God's fullness.

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth

–as part of God's fullness.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied

–with God's fullness.

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy

–which is God's fullness.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God

–in his fullness.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God

–because they are filled with God's fullness.

Matthew 5:3-9

We can live the magnificent life Jesus calls us to live here on this earth now –provided our lives are filled with God himself.

So filled with God that our hearts are satisfied, joined at last to the One for whom they were made.

Filled with Everything God Is

.. so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

At first glance it seems absurd to try to picture a flesh-and-blood human being filled with all the fullness of God. How can people such as we contain God in his fullness?

How can you put the Atlantic Ocean in a quart jar?

Yet Paul prays for his readers, including us, to be filled with all the fullness of God. And he prays this prayer because he knows from his own experience that it is possible to be saturated with everything that God is.

Jesus promised that if we love him and walk in his word he and the Father will come and make their abode in us. And when they come and make their abode in us they don't half-come.

"I've brought my wisdom to dwell in you but I've left^-my love back in heaven."

"I've come with light but for peace you'll have to wait until another time."

No!

He comes to us with everything he is.

And the effect of God filling us with his fullness is that we are satisfied, really satisfied, for the first time.

If I have a drinking problem it means that I'm basically unsatisfied, unfulfilled. But when God comes in with his fullness I'm so satisfied that I can take charge of this unruly craving and put it in its place. If I'm trapped in a drug habit even though I loathe myself and say I want to be free, in my heart of hearts I'm bound to drugs as my satisfaction in life. I will steal and connive to obtain drugs until something more fulfilling comes. And there are only two things which will satisfy the heart more than drugs: a life-consuming hatred, or the fullness of God.

If I live in a fantasy world of adultery and perversion it's because I'm trying to find my fulfillment in the area of lust. That endless games of sexual intrigue, imaginary or real will go on and on... with plenty of help from Hollywood and Madison Avenue and the clothing designers, until I taste and keep tasting the liberating satisfaction of being fulfilled with the fullness of God.

If we can't stop pursuing money, playing the numbers, dreaming of what we'll do when we hit the lottery, scheming ever new ways to acquire more, it's because we're finding our real heart-satisfaction in mammon. We will continue to live for it because we love it until we're filled to overflowing with him in whose light money is seen as the "unrighteous mammon" which he alone can sanctify.

If we need recognition every hour from other human beings, if we can't stop craving to be admired, liked, noticed, it's because that's where our heart is. That's where we are getting our satisfaction. And we will endlessly be in bondage to the eyes of men until we find a superior satisfaction in the superior eyes of the living God.

He Needs Our Cooperation

"Well, if God filling us with his fullness will set us free and enable us to live that new life, why doesn't he do it?

Why doesn't God send the mighty rushing wind into our lives and cause those flames of fire to descend on our heads?

Why doesn't he fill us now with his Spirit as he filled the believers on Pentecost?"

The answer is that God is more ready to give than we to ask. He has already sent the Spirit into our midst. The Spirit is here. But, if you want sunlight and fresh air in your house, you have to open the shutters and the windows and the doors and pull up the shades.

You have to open up!

God is striving to fill us with his fullness in four ways.

In each area the question is not, "Why isn't God doing something?" but rather,

"Why aren't we letting God do it?"

God is striving to strengthen us with might by the Spirit in the inner being.

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. I 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...

My inner being has eyes, ears, and a mouth like my outer being. They are weak, but as they yield to the Spirit they are strengthened.

So what am I looking at with the eyes of my inner being?

What am I listening to?

To whom am I calling?

Is my inner being allowing itself to be strengthened by the Spirit of God?

God is striving to cause his Son to dwell in our hearts by faith.

...and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith...

Am I letting it happen? Christ Jesus is knocking on the door right now but am I opening that door?

Is Jesus really welcome in my heart?

Jesus can only dwell in my heart if I make up my mind that I'm going to trust him. He dwells in our hearts by faith, an act of the will that says, "Lord, I trust you," and lives that way. "Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. I want you living in my heart all the time"

God is striving to pervade our lives with his love.

...as you are being rooted and grounded in love I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth....

...but are we letting it happen?

How can we be rooted and grounded in love unless we make God's love the chosen atmosphere and dwelling place of our life?

...God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God,

and God abides in him.

I dwell in love when I take hold of God's love with all my heart and when I show that same love in deed and in truth to my brother and sister and neighbor.

God is striving to make us to know the love of his Son.

...and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge...

The love of Christ which surpasses knowledge is staring us in the face.

It is all around us.

It's in the bread and wine.

It's in the kindness of brothers and sisters.

It's in a word of encouragement which God speaks to our hearts even now.

But we will not know it unless we choose to recognize it and appreciate it and thank God for it.

Can we honestly say that we know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge?

Isn't it more true to say we've barely tasted it yet, we've barely opened our eyes? God help us to open our eyes!

...so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

God wants to satisfy our hearts with his fullness, to fill us with everything he is.

Not after we die, but in this life.

When we desire this one thousandth as much as he desires it for us, it will surely be.

God help us to yield!

God help us to let it happen!

Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Original: REB...1977 … Also found in the booklet- Guidance

All art: With the love and blessing of JeanetteSthamann brushedbythespirit dot com

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