Two of the questions we ask ourselves during devotional time on Wednesdays are: “What’s the biggest challenge you are facing today?” and “What does this verse tell us about God, us, or the life God desires for us?”  We want to hear from God about how He will move in our lives and how He wants to come beside us and give strength in times of hardship and fear.

 Today, we asked these questions as we read over Ephesians 3:17-19:

“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 for you to understand fully.  Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.”

These verses specifically tell us how great God’s love us is and also how He makes us complete through His love.  Although these verses make it so clear that God loves His children and is always with them, as we talked during devotional we discussed how we still have times of doubt.  We think we’re not good enough for God to love us.  We think we haven’t done enough good things in our lives to be worthy of God’s love.  We see His love right there in front of us, but we just can’t quite reach it.

If only we were just a little bit better we could reach out for God’s love and rest in its comfort and peace.

But we don’t have to be better.  In fact, we don’t even have to be good.  God saved us because we needed saving, not because we already had our lives together—He knows all about our sins and our doubts, but still He loves us.  Verse 18 says, “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.”  God’s love for us is so immense and immeasurable that He sent His only son to die on the cross for our sins—the ultimate act of love.

God’s love is so great and powerful that we can’t even understand it completely.  Verse 19 says, “May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully.”  How amazing!  There is even more to God’s love for us than His sacrifice of His only son.

When we feel our doubts closing in around us and that little voice says,”if only you were better,” we can push back hard and say: “My roots will grow down into God’s love and keep me strong.”  God already knows about our sins and doubts, and He still loves us and desires for us experience His love and grow strong in it.

“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.”