Rooted in Love

There's something profoundly powerful about posture in prayer. While many of us bow our heads or fold our hands almost automatically, the Apostle Paul took a different approach when praying for the church at Ephesus. He didn't stand with hands outstretched in the traditional manner. Instead, he fell to his knees—a position of complete submission and reverence before the Father.

This wasn't a casual conversation with God. This was total surrender. And from that place of humility, Paul unleashed one of the most transformative prayers ever recorded, found in Ephesians 3:14-21. It's a prayer that doesn't just ask God for help with our problems but invites Him to completely transform who we are from the inside out.

Strength That Comes From Within
The first request Paul makes is striking: that believers would be strengthened in the deepest parts of their spirit. This isn't a motivational speech about pulling yourself up by your bootstraps or the power of positive thinking. This is something far more fundamental—the life-changing work of God through the Holy Spirit in our innermost being.

Until our spirit has been changed and renewed, nothing else can truly change within us. This is where real transformation begins. God comes in and strengthens us, giving us genuine power over sin. Not just the ability to resist temptation through willpower, but actual authority over the forces that seek to destroy us.

Here's the truth many of us forget: sin does not have authority over those who belong to Christ. We have authority over it. Too often, we let ourselves be tricked into thinking we're powerless and that we have to give in to destructive patterns. But when sinful thoughts or temptations creep in, we have the power to shut them down with the Word of God, with prayer, and by seeking the face of the Lord.

What makes this strengthening even more remarkable is its source. Paul says God strengthens us "according to the riches of his glory"—not out of limited human resources, but from an infinite reservoir. When we give what we can and let God add to it, we discover that His supply is unlimited. We don't have to walk in weakness or timidity. We can walk in the full power and authority of Jesus Christ in every aspect of our lives.

Christ Making Himself at Home
But why does God want to renew us from the inside out? So that Christ may dwell within us—not as a temporary guest staying in a hotel, but settling down permanently as the master of the house.

Think about what it means for Jesus to truly be at home in your heart. When someone makes themselves at home, they don't just sit in the living room. They go into every room, including the closets where we hide things we don't want others to see. Those secret shames, those hidden corners of our lives—that's exactly where Jesus wants to go.

Imagine Jesus walking through the rooms of your inner life. In the library of your mind, He finds trash and worthless things that He proceeds to throw out and replace with His word. He moves through the dining room, the living room, the workshop, and yes, even that closet where you've stuffed everything you don't want anyone to see.

Jesus doesn't want to just occupy the presentable parts of our lives—the parts we show on Sunday morning. He wants access to everything. Only when every room has been cleaned, every space and corner cleared of sin and foolishness, can Christ truly settle down and be whole within us.

This is what it means to have Jesus dwell in our hearts through faith: allowing Him to be at home in every corner of our lives, becoming obedient to His word, and believing His promises.

The Immeasurable Dimensions of Love
When we're rooted in Christ, we're rooted in love. Love becomes both the soil in which we grow and the foundation on which we're built. It was God's love that sent Jesus to the cross. It was Jesus' love that kept Him there. And it's in this love that we begin to grow as new beings in Christ.

As we grow, we begin to comprehend the vast dimensions of His love—the length, width, height, and depth. These aren't just poetic words; they describe a love so comprehensive that it touches every aspect of existence.

The width of His love reaches far enough to include everyone, even our enemies. That's challenging, isn't it? We can love those who love us back, but loving someone who is mean to us or doesn't like us? That requires supernatural love—the kind that only comes from being rooted in Christ.

The length of His love reaches from eternity past to eternity future. God has never given up on His plan. He will fulfill it one hundred percent in each of us.

The depth of His love reaches down into our deepest failures and darkest secrets. As the psalmist asked, "Where can I go to escape You?" From the highest mountain to the deepest sea, there is nowhere we can hide from God's pursuing love.

The height of His love lifts us up to our heavenly calling in Him. When we understand this love, we discover our true identity in Christ.

Here's the beautiful paradox: the more we know of Christ's love, the more we must confess it's beyond our full comprehension. This is a lifelong pursuit, like diving into a spiritual ocean that has no bottom. We're exploring something we'll spend eternity discovering.

Filled to Overflowing
The ultimate goal of this transformation is to be filled with the fullness of God—to be all that God wants us to be, spiritually mature and complete. When we pursue God and pray for Him to strengthen us with the power of His Holy Spirit, when Jesus makes His home within us, we gain confidence and security in His love. Then we're able to love others, leading to the fullness of God dwelling in us.

Think of a dry sponge—brittle, small, and limited. But when that sponge is submerged in water, it becomes saturated, expands, and becomes useful. That's what happens when we're rooted in God's love. We become saturated by His character, and we grow and expand. When we're squeezed by life's pressures, what pours out isn't bitterness or fear, but the love of God that fills us.

Worship, Not Management
When we truly grasp the scale of God's grace, "thank you" feels too small. That's why Paul ends his prayer not with a list of instructions but with worship—a doxology praising God who "is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine."

We often ask God for just enough strength to get through the week or survive the next crisis. But God doesn't want to just help us cope; He wants to help us conquer. He provides measurably more power than our problems have pressure.

We tend to treat Jesus like a guest we call when things go wrong, asking our Savior to save us from our mess. But He offers something better: a friend who stays to live in the mess with us and transforms it from the inside out.

When we realize that God's "more" is always greater than our "ask," we stop trying to manage Him and start to worship Him. We stop negotiating with God about what we're willing to surrender and instead offer Him everything, knowing that what He gives in return is immeasurably greater than anything we could hold onto.

So the question becomes: What are you holding back? If God is able to do so much more than we can ask or even imagine, why would we withhold anything from Him? The very thing you're clinging to might be the thing standing between you and the fullness of life God wants to give you.

Being rooted in love isn't passive—it's the most active, transformative experience available to humanity. It's letting God strengthen you from the inside out, allowing Christ to make Himself at home in every corner of your life, and being filled to overflowing with a love so vast it defies comprehension. That's the life God invites us into—not just survival, but abundant, overflowing, immeasurably more than we could ask or imagine.