Day 6 - Love That Transforms

by Sarah Budgett

London, England

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Ephesians 3:16-19

Additional Reading:

Ephesians 3:16-19

John 17:26

Matthew 13:44

Ephesians 1:17-19

How wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ? How can we picture this? I think of a cube or a sphere – stretching up to the sky, down to the bottom of the sea, away to the horizon in front of me and to the sides. How massive is that? But that is not all. Imagine the sphere extending up, up, up into the night sky, past the stars and planets, in all directions, on and on, for infinity until it fills the whole universe. That is the extent of the love of Christ. It is endless.  

Christ is incapable of not loving. He is not like us who are fickle in our love. His whole nature is love. He is totally unable to be indifferent, bored, critical, contemptuous, uncaring, forgetful, disinterested. He laid down His life for you and me when He knew that we were going to rebel against Him.

He is my biggest fan. He loves my face. He loves my sense of humour. He loves my talents and my skills. He loves my interests and passions. He loves spending time with me. He loves my personality. He loves to see me overcome hurdles and grow. He loves the potential that He has put in me, and He knows how to bring that potential out of me. He hurts when I hurt; he grieves with me. He knows my deepest pain, my deepest sadness, my biggest regrets and my worst fears. He loves me when I am on top of the world and He loves me when I am a wreck. And He loves you in just the same way.

And yet we sometimes find it hard to understand this. We have eyes but we don’t see. My tendency on a bad day is to struggle when setbacks happen, to feel overly responsible, to be a perfectionist, to dwell on negative thoughts and to feel low. To feel distant from God and unloved.

Talking to my women friends, I know that all too often we struggle to let go of guilt and to feel accepted by God. When things don’t go as we would hope we either feel that God is holding something against us, or that if He were really loving He wouldn’t have let this thing happen. Sometimes we prioritise the visible love of a human, or the feeling of success and status that a career and money bring. We start investing in these things and draw back from serving God. These feelings and tendencies are difficult to change: we get stuck in unhealthy patterns.

Magnificent Love

Preparing this devotional, I have become so much more aware that God’s love for me is completely magnificent. It is truly like the treasure a man found hidden in a field (Matthew 13:44). It is everything that I could hope for. If I grasp the amazing love of Christ for me, then I am the most loved, the most cherished person there could ever be. I am constantly being thought about, planned for, longed for and appreciated. That gaping hole in my heart is filled with abundant love.

If my husband doesn’t make me feel like a million dollars every day I don’t need to be discouraged, because Christ does. If my friends don’t completely meet my needs, I can let it go because Christ understands me and is thinking about my needs 24/7. Instead of chasing after success, or trying to be perfect or impressive, I can be me because I am accepted and valued. When I make a mistake, or when a trial comes my way, I am learning that Christ’s love is still as solid as ever. He will work for the good and use the situation to mould me. The evidence of His love is not a life free of difficulty and pain, but a spiritual reality that can never be taken away. And that is a great joy.

Ephesians 3:16-19 tells us that as the Spirit gives us the power to grasp and know this love, Christ dwells in our hearts, and fills us to the brim with Himself. Knowing “this love that surpasses knowledge” and being “filled to the measure of all the fullness of God” are blessings that come as a pair. We are transformed from the inside out. Jesus Himself prayed for the same thing for us, His future followers: “I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them” (John 17:26).

Being filled with love is being filled with Christ; grasping how much He loves us…overflowing with God. We are transformed from the inside because when we know we are truly loved, our thinking is renewed, our motives are purified and our security is rooted in God. We freely give up the idols that we were chasing because we no longer need them. We are overjoyed to sell all we have, to buy that “field.” We become a vessel that Christ can fill with His fullness, not a cup half-empty, but a cup full to overflowing.

Grasping God’s Love

It is not strange that we struggle to understand how much we are loved. Paul showed us that we need the power of prayer to grasp the love of Christ. It does not come naturally. He prayed for the Ephesians to be strengthened with power in their inner being, and to have power to grasp the immensity of Christ’s love, to know this love and to be filled with the full measure of Christ (Ephesians 3:16-19).

He prayed for the Father to give them the Spirit of wisdom and revelation so they would know Him better (Ephesians 1:17), for the eyes of their hearts to be enlightened in order that they may know the hope to which He had called them, the riches of His glorious inheritance in His holy people, and His incomparably great power for us who believe (Ephesians 1:18-19). These are prayers that we can offer up to God for ourselves and each other.

How often do we pray for help to overcome anger, unforgiveness, lukewarmness, jealousy, envy and many other things, but forget that perhaps at the root of these issues is a lack of truly grasping the love of God? If a person understands in their very soul the extent of the love of Christ, they cannot help but be transformed.

Let us join Paul in praying for the Spirit to work with great power in our hearts and the hearts of others so that, individually and as the body of Christ, we know His love and are filled with His fullness, transformed by the love that transforms.

Questions for Reflection:

1. How clearly do you see Christ’s love for you?

2. How could you be transformed if the eyes of your heart were opened to the immensity of Christ’s love?

Today I Will:

Today I will pray for myself and others to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge.

About the author: 

Sarah Budgett serves on the leadership team of the North Region of the London International Church of Christ along with her husband, Richard. She loves playing the keyboard in the church band, volunteering in the community, rowing and keeping fit, and going for walks in the countryside.