Community Updates

Preparing for Worship: The Fullness of God

John Haralson
March 3, 2023

Citizens"How Majestic (Reconstructed)"

power, divorced from Love,
possessively holds the name;
but power, rooted in Love,
can conceive Love's full frame.
Carreen Raynor, "rooted and grounded”

         Note: Christian Formation + Prayer at 9:00 AM  
                  Sunday worship at 10:15 AM (childcare thru 2nd grade available)

                  In-person worship and live stream
         
Dear Grace Family,

Life with God begins and ends with our belovedness.

It is not our love for God that is at the center of our lives; it is God’s love for us. This love is foundational.

Though we may agree with the truthfulness of God’s love, we don’t always experience it in the core of our beings. There are many other voices—duties, fears, shame, anxieties—clamoring for control and promising to protect us.

In the midst of our dilemma—knowing we are loved but not feeling securely anchored in that love—how do we grow in our experience of God’s love for us? In other words, is it possible for us to feel more loved?

I know, I know, you’ve probably been told that the truth of God’s love is more important than your experience of it. God’s truth is more important than your feelings, or so you've often heard from well-meaning preachers and friends.

Well, it seems like the Apostle Paul didn’t get that memo.

In Ephesians 3:14-21, he prays that the Ephesian Christians would not only know about the love of God on some intellectual level. He prays that they would experience that love. He uses words like rooted, grounded, and strengthened to try to explain how centered on God's love he desires them to be.  

You also may notice, curiously, the language of “power” permeates the prayer. Power is a word that is applied to thunderstorms, surging ocean waves, and conquering armies.

Paul is praying that through the power of the Holy Spirit dwelling inside of us—to be more precise, in our “inner beings” or at the deepest parts of our heart—we would be given the ability to experience how deeply and profoundly we are loved by God.

Through God's power, we are set free from all other powers besides the love of God. In other words, the power of God gives us the ability to grasp our own belovedness.

I'd say that's a prayer worth praying.

I hope to worship with you Sunday!

This Sunday: Ephesians 3:14-21 (ESV)       “The Fullness of God”Here is the Order of Worship.Warmly in Christ,John