EPHESIANS 3
16. May He grant you out of the rich treasury of His glory to be strengthened and reinforced with mighty power in the inner man by the Holy Spirit (Himself) –indwelling your innermost being and personality. Amp.
How do we tap into this mighty power that we so desperately need?
Romans 5:3. Moreover — let us also be full of joy now! Let us exult and triumph in our troubles and rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that pressure and affliction and hardship produce patient and unswerving endurance.
4. And endurance (fortitude) develops maturity of character – that is approved faith and tried integrity. And character of this sort produces the habit of joyful and confident hope of eternal salvation.
5. Such hope never disappoints or deludes or shames us, for God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit Who has been given to us. Amp.
We are told in Romans 5 the effect of the trials in our life if we endure them the right way. We must come through them with a positive and thankful attitude. We must endure them without forcing our own way out of them. We must allow the Lord to end the trial when He sees fit. He knows when we have learned what we need to learn.
We always have the ability to end the trial. He wants willing hearts and is searching for them. If we keep our eyes on the end result, we can believe that it is a good blessing and not a bad trial or problem. The Lord will bring it to an end at the proper time and we will be blessed.
This is the only way for us to mature. We must learn to endure pain and hardship. There are so many of God’s people in the Bible who endured great hardship. Since we live in a modern civilization with so many conveniences, we are really rather spoiled. Those in the Old Testament suffered so much more than we do. And besides that, we have Jesus and 24 hour a day access to the throne of God to ask for our needed help. We are so blessed.
Then after we endure the trials victoriously, we receive the mighty power of the Holy Spirit indwelling in our innermost being. Then we have access to the rest of Ephesians 3:17-20. He comes and makes His permanent home in our hearts. Now it is up to us to get rooted in that love and learn all about it and how it changes us.
We must learn the love of Christ by experience. You will never know His love if you do not draw near to Him every day, all day without fail. He must be your everything. There is nothing better than His love. But you will never know it by hearing someone else talk about it. That is what Ephesians 3 especially 16-20 is saying.
We must really come to know His love for ourselves. We must allow Him to love us. The only way for that to happen is to turn off this world and all its media and spend quality time with Him. I am not talking about reading the Bible, praying or attending church although you must do them also.
I am talking about a personal time of communication and conversation just like getting to know anyone else. You must spend time talking to Him. You must give him the opportunity to talk back to you. So, you must be free from sin and separate from this world. It is the most blessed place there is. Then He will begin to fill you with His fullness.
This is verse 20, above all that we dare ask or think, beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes or dreams. There is absolutely nothing better than the love of Jesus.