Out of His Glorious Riches

 DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE EPHESIANS

OUT OF HIS GLORIOUS RICHES

Eph 3:14-19

14 For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge — that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

NIV

Oh, how we want and need out of the glorious riches of God to strengthen us with power through his Spirit in our inner being. The first thing that is very important is the reason the Father is the one with the glorious riches, and it is out of or from His glorious riches, we have the Spirit who comes to strengthen us with power in our inner being so that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith. How incredible this fact is, which shows us that we alone, in our own strength and power cannot have enough faith to have Christ dwell in our hearts. Our faith has to do with all the work of God. He is the one who started this great work in us and He is the one who is going to complete this work in us, bringing us to perfection on that day when we finally are fully redeemed, standing in His glorious presence. How can we ever think that our being a Christian, having faith in Jesus Christ, and knowing He is dwelling in our hearts is all about our strength and power? We cannot even have faith unless God gives us that measure of faith to believe. Although we are His creation and we have been made in his image, thus we can say that we are supposed to be image bearers of God, reflecting His glory to the world, it is not about how we can do this in our own strength and power. Everything in our lives is about our being strengthened by the administration through His Spirit in our inner being, so that Christ may dwell in our hearts. Oh, we can act all spiritually, and get all puffed up about our good deeds, or any qualifications we might feel make us a good Christian, or what our position is in the body of Christ, but all we have is our weakness. It is in our weakness that He is strong, It is God who is doing all the work in us through the power of His Spirit. Let us strive to be humble knowing nothing is about our abilities or our strength and look to the strengthening power of the Spirit so that Christ may dwell in us and move in and through us to accomplish the purpose of His will in and through us. Oh, we need the strengthening of the Spirit out of the glorious riches of the Father.