Experiencing God’s Love EPHESIANS 3:17-19

In today’s passage, Paul prays that the Ephesians will grasp the depth of Christ’s love. Though divine care is beyond human comprehension, the apostle states that God will give spiritual understanding so we can experience Him more fully.

What keeps us from getting a handle on His love and resting in it? First, as we saw yesterday, we think God’s acceptance is imperfect and conditional like ours. Yet the Bible tells us that His compassion comes from His character and is not dependent upon our morality, choices, or thoughts.

Second, when we recognize our sin, we often experience guilt. Sometimes this leads to feeling unworthy of the Father’s ultimate love. Instead, let a guilty conscience lead you back to God so that you can repent. Realize that His love and forgiveness is greater than any sin. He promises that there is no condemnation for His followers.

Third, there are some teachers who encourage legalism, which traps a person into feeling that he or she must earn God’s favor. This contradicts divine truth: Our Father loves His children without condition.

Fourth, some people have a difficult time reconciling God’s love with His discipline. These can exist together, however. His correction flows from compassion, just as loving parents must redirect their children.

Recognizing God’s love will bring peace and joy to your life. At the same time, it doesn’t give license to sin. Like any caring father, He will discipline in order to bring you back to Him. Instead, why not let His love motivate you to walk in a holy and obedient manner before Him?

Present Possession

. . . Ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the spirit?

Romans 8:23

Present possession is declared. At this present moment we have the firstfruits of the Spirit. We have repentance, that gem of the first water; faith, that priceless pearl; hope, the heavenly emerald; and love, the glorious ruby. We are already made new creatures in Christ Jesus by the effectual working of God the Holy Spirit. This is called the firstfruit because it comes first. As the wave-sheaf was the first of the harvest, so the spiritual life, and all the graces that adorn that life, are the first operations of the Spirit of God in our souls.

The firstfruits were the pledge of the harvest. As soon as the Israelite had plucked the first handful of ripe ears, he looked forward with glad anticipation to the time when the wagon would creak beneath the sheaves. So, brethren, when God gives us things that are pure, lovely, and of good report, as the work of the Holy Spirit, these are to us the indications of the coming glory. The firstfruits were always holy to the Lord, and our new nature, with all its powers, is a consecrated thing. The new life is not ours that we should ascribe its excellence to our own merit; it is Christ’s image and creation and is ordained for His glory.

But the firstfruits were not the harvest, and the works of the Spirit in us at this moment are not the consummation—the perfection is still to come. We must not boast that we have attained, and so reckon the first sheaf to be all the produce of the year: We must hunger and thirst for righteousness and long for the day of full redemption. Dear reader, this evening open your mouth wide, and God will fill it. Let the blessing in present possession excite in you a sacred greed for more grace. Groan within yourself for higher degrees of consecration, and your Lord will grant them to you, for He is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think.