By Erin Elizabeth Austin
There are times in a believer’s life when he or she has what I call a divine revelation, a moment that challenges them and radically changes the way they view life. Recently, I had one of those moments, and I’m still reeling from the daily lessons God is teaching me. My worldview has changed, and I’ve realized I’ve been going about life all wrong. And it all started with one prayer.
For the past two years, God has continuously brought me back to a passage in Scripture found in Ephesians 3:14-21. I have felt compelled to read these verses daily. For those who aren’t familiar with it, it says:
There are times in a believer’s life when he or she has what I call a divine revelation, a moment that challenges them and radically changes the way they view life. Recently, I had one of those moments, and I’m still reeling from the daily lessons God is teaching me. My worldview has changed, and I’ve realized I’ve been going about life all wrong. And it all started with one prayer.
For the past two years, God has continuously brought me back to a passage in Scripture found in Ephesians 3:14-21. I have felt compelled to read these verses daily. For those who aren’t familiar with it, it says:
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.
In the beginning, I started reading this because I felt like the black sheep of God’s family. I felt like God loved me because He had to, not because He wanted to. Although I knew it was wrong, I just couldn’t get my thoughts and emotions to believe it. So, I started to pray these verses every day. I prayed that I would realize how wide, how long, how high, and how deep the love of Christ is for me, Erin Elizabeth Austin. I asked God to help me know beyond any shadow of a doubt that He loves me, willingly, and that I see myself the way He views me.
God graciously answered that prayer, but over time, He had me start looking at the rest of Ephesians 3:14-21. No matter how hard I tried, He wouldn’t let me skip past the part in verse 17 where it says we should be “rooted and grounded in love.” Before I started studying the original language in which the passage was written, I thought it meant I need to know and understand God’s love for myself and be saturated in it. However, that’s not what it’s talking about at all. To be honest, it surprised me. You see, the more I listened to sermons and read books about God’s love, I realized that Christians are missing the mark in a big way when it comes to God’s love. There is so much out there about how big and wonderful God’s love for each of us is, and it is, but rarely do we hear about how we are supposed to love God. Somewhere along the way, we’ve forgotten that a genuine love relationship is supposed to be reciprocal, meaning not only does a person love us, but we love him/her in return. Yes, we are supposed to love people even when they’re unlovable, but if one person is constantly pouring love into the relationship and the other person just takes, there is a problem.
God graciously answered that prayer, but over time, He had me start looking at the rest of Ephesians 3:14-21. No matter how hard I tried, He wouldn’t let me skip past the part in verse 17 where it says we should be “rooted and grounded in love.” Before I started studying the original language in which the passage was written, I thought it meant I need to know and understand God’s love for myself and be saturated in it. However, that’s not what it’s talking about at all. To be honest, it surprised me. You see, the more I listened to sermons and read books about God’s love, I realized that Christians are missing the mark in a big way when it comes to God’s love. There is so much out there about how big and wonderful God’s love for each of us is, and it is, but rarely do we hear about how we are supposed to love God. Somewhere along the way, we’ve forgotten that a genuine love relationship is supposed to be reciprocal, meaning not only does a person love us, but we love him/her in return. Yes, we are supposed to love people even when they’re unlovable, but if one person is constantly pouring love into the relationship and the other person just takes, there is a problem.
The phrase “rooted and grounded in love” in Ephesians 3 actually goes back to Matthew 22:37 when Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment is, and His response was, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” Admittedly, when I realized to what this passage was referring, I thought I was loving God the way He says we should. If you look at my life, it’s obvious I love God. I started a nonprofit for Him; I have speaking engagements where I teach His Word; I write devotions. Of course, I love God! But then, I heard God say, “Have you prayed about it?”
So, I started each day asking God to help me love Him with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength. What I’ve realized since then is I haven’t had a clue how to love God the way I should. For me, one of the biggest areas He challenged me in is my love for reading. Books have always been a way of escape for me. I’m able to get enthralled in a good story and forget my pain and sickness for a brief time. Although reading isn’t a bad thing, when I let it become more important than my relationship with God, it’s a problem.
So, I started each day asking God to help me love Him with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength. What I’ve realized since then is I haven’t had a clue how to love God the way I should. For me, one of the biggest areas He challenged me in is my love for reading. Books have always been a way of escape for me. I’m able to get enthralled in a good story and forget my pain and sickness for a brief time. Although reading isn’t a bad thing, when I let it become more important than my relationship with God, it’s a problem.
I think if we’re honest, the majority of us have things we love more than God. For some, it’s their grandchildren. For others, it’s a job. Some people might love social media more than God. And though our first inclination is to say, “I love God,” would He agree?
I challenge you to start praying this radical prayer. Not only has it changed my perspective, but it’s rocked my prayer life in ways I couldn’t have imagined. I am seeing God’s power through Him answering prayers on a regular basis.
God will never stop loving us. One of the Old Testament words for God’s love literally means “to be attached to.” God cannot and will not let us go. His love is unchanging. God holds onto us even when we let go of Him. Don’t you think He deserves the same?
“If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing… But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.” ~ 1 Corinthians 13:1-3,13
God will never stop loving us. One of the Old Testament words for God’s love literally means “to be attached to.” God cannot and will not let us go. His love is unchanging. God holds onto us even when we let go of Him. Don’t you think He deserves the same?
“If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing… But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.” ~ 1 Corinthians 13:1-3,13
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