Godslove – Emmanuel Pentecostal Church Gateshead Resources

TUESDAY 19^th – Ephesians 3

We are going to continue in the book of Ephesians today and Chapter 3 verses 14-21.

Paul has started this chapter with the words, ‘For this reason . . .’ and then seems to get side-tracked before returning to his point again in verse 14 ‘For this reason . . .’ so to understand what he means by ‘For this reason’ we have to look back at the verses preceding chapter 3 and into chapter two. He has already done the same thing in chapter 1, after what he has said in the opening verses 1-14, he then says in verse 15 ‘For this reason’ and he prays for them.

I won’t sum up chapter 2 here because we have already looked at it in the previous two devotions, but as a result of who and what the believers had become in Christ, and because of his spiritual care for them Paul says ‘for this reason I bow my knees before the Father . . .’ And just as he prayed in chapter one, he prays again in chapter three. Now, he could have just told the believers he had prayed for them and then continued with his letter, but he chooses not to, he chooses instead to let them know what he has prayed for them verses 16-19.

What a good prayer for Paul to be praying for this Church in Ephesus, it’s a good example of a prayer that every pastor should be praying not only for himself but for the church in which he has been called to serve.

So often and rightly so, we can pray for all the material needs and the physical needs of one another and yet neglect to pray for spiritual needs.

Learning something from his prayer:

We saw in Ephesians 2 that God is rich in mercy (v4) and rich in grace (v7), here in chapter 3:18 we read of the unsearchable riches of Christ and then in Pauls prayer in v16 the riches of his glory. Glory is a word that is used to describe the very presence of God, I believe it describes the fulness of God himself, that is who he is in his attributes and what he is in his eternality. He is the source of life and at the same time he is the one who sustains life, therefore Paul is acknowledging that everything we need in this life finds its source out of the riches of God’s glory. The word riches linked to God’s glory means that God cannot give out so much that the supply runs low or even runs out. It is a permanently perpetual supply. His riches will never be exhausted, and God’s glory will never be diminished.

In this prayer Paul is praying that we would be strengthened with power through his Spirit in our inner being. There is no better place to get our power from than from the heavenly supply, we need to keep being strengthened by his power, the more so as we live in such dark and difficult days. Paul wants the same thing for the Colossian Church, Colossians 1:11 ‘May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy’. As I write these few thoughts down, my prayer is that we at Emmanuel Pentecostal Church, and others who are reading this through ‘Wordpress’ or email etc. will know what it is to be strengthened in our inner being as a result of God’s Spirit, imparting strength to us from out of the riches of his glory.

Paul wanted the believers to know not just in theory, but also in practical outworking the power of the presence of the indwelling Christ in their lives.

In the prayer, Paul mentions the dimensions of breadth, height, length, and depth without saying what the dimensions are referring to, it is generally accepted that he is referring to the wisdom and the love of God. In an earlier letter to the believers at Rome he uses similar language to describe that there is nothing in all of creation that can separate us from the love of God (Romans 8:37-39), he sees everything that can seek to come against us as believers, he lists tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger and sword, (Romans 8:35) and his definite conclusion is that nothing will separate us from the love of God.

I will attempt to paint a picture here of what I can visualise in my mind, a picture that I hope and trust will help us to understand what I want to say from linking Ephesians 3:18 with Romans 8:31-39.

Imagine (or get a pencil and paper and draw) a large circle (dinner plate size) and a smaller circle. (saucer size and cut them out)

In the small circle place the words tribulation, distress, persecutions, famine, nakedness, danger, sword, and anything which you are battling against at this moment in your life. Then in the larger circle, just write around half of the circumference in the inside edge ‘the love of God’.

Spend a few moments just thinking about the things you have written on the small circle, on their own they would be very depressing, on their own they would swallow us up, but now, place the small circle into the centre of the larger circle, and see how the height, depth, breadth and length of the love of God is far bigger than the problems in the middle. So great is God’s love that there is nothing, absolutely nothing that can overwhelm his love or separate us from it.

Now, finally, somewhere around the other half of the circumference of the large circle also write ‘the wisdom of God.’ Now remind yourself that when you ever question God in the midst of your circumstances, his wisdom is at work, and his wisdom is beyond our wisdom and his thoughts are above our thoughts, so much so than even though it may seem the things written in the smaller circle might be working against us, Gods wisdom is at work, He knows what he is doing and he is bringing about his purpose and plan. The problems might loom over us, but God is much larger, his love is much larger, his power is much larger, and his wisdom is much larger. In the words of the Psalmist

Psalm 60:4 ‘You have set up a banner for those who fear you, that they may flee to it from the bow.’ Song of Solomon 2:4 ‘His banner over me is love’ When it actually comes to trying to measure out how wide, deep, high, or broad the love and wisdom of God are, it is impossible for as our text says in verse 7 ‘. . . the immeasurable love of Christ.’ It outreaches our circumstances by an immeasurable degree. If you take the larger circle in my illustration, we could never ever draw a circle big enough to contain the love of God or the wisdom of God, it us unfathomable and uncontainable.

Remember the children’s song ‘The love of Jesus is so wonderful? we will end todays devotion with the words, I have discovered there are more words to this that have been added later, so I have included them. Spend some time today meditating on the wonder of God’s love toward the sinner, toward us.

Jesus’ love is very wonderful

Jesus’ love is very wonderful,

Oh, wonderful love!

It’s so high you can’t get over it,

So low you can’t get under it,

So wide you can’t get round it,

Oh, wonderful love!

So deep you can’t go through it,

So long you can’t see the end of it,

So strong you can’t resist it,

Oh, wonderful love!

So bright you have to see it,

So loud you have to hear it,

So sweet you have to taste it,

Oh, wonderful love!

^CCLI788682

^{2nd & 3rd Verse from Avebury Wiltshire}

Sunday 19^th

Psalm 103

Yesterday we looked at a verse from Psalm 91, today and through this week I want to continue in the Psalms. I wonder if you were limited to choosing seven Psalms which ones would you choose? Perhaps that would be a good exercise today, to compile your personal list. I have chosen seven for this week, but I have not particularly chosen what would be my top seven simply because my list would include at least three that we won’t use this week. My list would include Psalm 1, has it’s always been one of my favourites, and Psalm 121 and Psalm 19.

Today I have chosen Psalm 103, verses 1-5.

These first few verses in this psalm are probably verses that I quote or use more than any other in prayer, especially verse 1, verses 1-5, ‘Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.’

Just pause for a moment or two and consider the wonder of these words.

‘Forget not all his benefits’ if I were to give a New Testament comparison, it would be Ephesians 1:3 ‘Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places’ I have already mentioned about listing what would be your top seven Psalms, here is a bigger challenge, how about beginning to list the many benefits or blessings we have received in Christ.

In Psalm 139:17, David says ‘How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them.’ He then continues in the next verse, ‘IF I could count them, they are more than the sand!’ In an earlier Psalm he says, ‘You have multiplied, O LORD my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us; none can compare with you!’ (Psalm 40:5) If David could say these things before Calvary has happened, how much more so can we who have known the wonder of Calvary’s love and grace. His blessings towards us are like his thoughts toward us, they are more than the sand.

‘Who forgives all your iniquity’ read what it says later in the same Psalm, verse 12, ‘as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.’ Re-read this and declare it loud and clear, if we have been to the cross in repentance, our sin HAS been removed and we have been justified by his precious blood! The devil can throw every accusation against us that he wants to, but not one accusation will stand as we remain firm in our position in Christ Jesus, because we have been forgiven and we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus himself, who is standing in God’s presence on our behalf. 1 John 1:9 ‘If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.’

‘Who heals all your diseases’ ‘Oh dear’ this is a tricky one, if he heals all our diseases how come so many of the household of faith are sick and suffering? Well, no it’s not tricky for God does have the power to heal all our diseases – he has healed us from the worse of them all – the disease of sin which had left us spiritually dead and thanks to his death on the cross and the power of his resurrection, by grace we have been saved and we have been made spiritually alive again. (Ephesians 2) But alongside reading Scripture concerning healing we need to remind ourselves that although we have been made alive spiritually or quickened as the KJV says, we are still living in a fallen world, and we still suffer some of the consequences of the fall, as Paul puts it in 2 Corinthians 4:16 ‘So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.’ But thank God one of the blessing of being in Christ is that one day that which is wasting away, perishing, and decaying will be transformed into a glorious new eternal body. Another Scripture that should help us in this is Romans 8:23-25 ‘And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. (See also 1 Corinthians 15:42-49) And although healing can and does take place in the present, the day is coming when all sickness and disease will be done away with – and as a result of what? – Christ’s redemptive work, and so he does heal all our diseases, sometimes it happens in the present but most definitely for every believer it will happen as we enter eternity. As I have said in an earlier devotion, (March 28^th) if our healing doesn’t happen today, he gives us his grace to strengthen us in the present and as a sure and certain hope for the future.

‘Who redeems your life from the pit’ In the CSB* the word pit is capitalized to Pit, this then means it is referring to a specific place. It is referring to ‘Sheol’, the place of the dead, or the place where the dead go to. The psalmist is rejoicing that because of his hope and confidence in God, when he dies, he will not go to the place of the spiritually dead, because he has been redeemed from it. So where will he go? Well instead of the Pit those who are spiritually alive will go to Paradise! Remember what the response of Jesus was to the dying thief on the cross? ‘Today you will be with me in Paradise’ In other words instead of the PIT and as a result of Christ’s resurrection, we go to where the Saviour is and perhaps better to put it this way, we go into the PRESENCE of our Saviour. And we who are born again by the Spirit of God have been redeemed from the pit, from the place of the spiritually dead. For the unbeliever the Pit is not good news, because the New Testament enlarges further and talks of the unrighteous dead being raised and cast with the devil and his wicked angels into the Lake of Fire which will be a place of eternal punishment,(Revelation 20:7-15) but for us who are believers, our body may be temporarily placed in the ground, but our redeemed spirit / soul will enter into his presence awaiting the glorious resurrection day. (1 Corinthians 15:50-58)

‘Who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s’. Because of time I will sum these thought up by using Scripture, just ponder upon the wonder that instead of a golden crown studded with diamond on our heads, we have been crowned with something far more precious and valuable – the steadfast love and mercy of God.

Psalm 5:11-12 ‘But let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them ever sing for joy, and spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may exult in you. For you bless the righteous, O LORD; you cover him with favour as with a shield.’

Psalm 107:8-9 ‘Let them thank the LORD for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man! For he satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry soul he fills with good things.’

Matthew 5:6 ‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.’

Isaiah 40:30-31 ‘Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.’

Oh yes, my list which we will look at the rest of this week – Psalm 8, Psalm 23, Psalm 42, Psalm 100, Psalm 123, Psalm 34.

*CSB Christian Standard Bible

Lately I’ve been looking back, along this winding road

To the old familiar markers of the mercies I have known

I know it may sound simple but it’s more than a cliche

There’s no better way to tell you, than to say

God’s been good in my life

I feel blessed beyond my wildest dreams when I go to sleep each night

And though I’ve had my share of hard times, I wouldn’t change them if I could

‘Cause through it all, God’s been good

Times replay and I can see that I’ve cried some bitter tears

But I felt His arms around me, as I faced my greatest fears

You see I’ve had more gains than losses and I’ve known more joy than hurt

As His grace rolled down upon me undeserved

For God has been my Father, my Savior and my Friend

His love was my beginning, and His love will be my end

I could spend forever trying to tell you everything He is

But the best thing I can say is this . . . God’s been good . . .’

^{Unknown CCLI 788682}