Grounded in Love
Ephesians 3:17-19
May Christ through your faith [actually] dwell (settle down, abide, make His permanent home) in your hearts! May you be rooted deep in love and founded securely on love, That you may have the power and be strong to apprehend and grasp with all the saints [God’s devoted people, the experience of that love] what is the breadth and length and height and depth [of it]; [That you may really come] to know [practically, through experience for yourselves] the love of Christ, which far surpasses mere knowledge [without experience]; that you may be filled [through all your being] unto all the fullness of God [may have the richest measure of the divine Presence, and become a body wholly filled and flooded with God Himself]!
Today the mentioned scripture was demonstrated to me in a practical manner, and I would like to share it through this short story.
Background
The “Lord Lover” Land Rover was in for a clutch repair. The service centre had to remove the gearbox to replace the clutch release bearing, they also replaced the slave cylinder and master cylinder, but when I got the Landy (Disco 1 300tdi) back, the speedometer, tachometer and dash lights where not working.
The google search gave 3 possible options, namely; wire pinched when they replaced the gearbox, blown fuses and bad earth. The service centre could not find the problem, even after a auto electrician was called, resulting in me taking the Landy with the option of trying to find it myself or take it to an auto electrician that knows a Disco 1. I decided to trust in the Lord to guide me in finding the problem.
I started with the fuses, all seemed well, there was one blown fuse but it did not resolve the problem. Then I started looking for wires that was maybe pinched during the replacement of the gearbox, I found one wire pinched between the gearbox body mount, it turned out to be the reverse switch cable. After fixing it the reverse lights worked but the dash was still dead.
Lastly I considered the bad earth option, I tested the earth wire from the battery to the body mount and found it was a bad earth. I removed the whole wire cleaned the wire connection points and the contacted points on the body. Replaced it and everything worked, praise the Lord, for HE IS GOOD!
Lesson learned
I realized that a small contamination can result in having no power. This same principal is also active in our relationship with the Lord, any form of sin can result in having no connection with the Lord, it creates a distance that prevent the flow of God’s love to manifest in and through our lives. Paul is telling us in Ephesians 3:17-19 that we should ensure that we are grounded in the Love of Christ so that we can understand the breadth and length and height and depth of His Love.
The worst part of driving without the instrument panel working, is that you have no idea of the engine temperature, no idea how much fuel you have in the tank and you don’t know the speed you are travelling. In Ephesians 3:17-19 Paul desired that each one of us may experience the fullness of God’s love manifest in our lives, so that we may know practically the love of God through experience.
Without being grounded in His love, we cannot experience what God intended for all of us when He sent His Son Jesus Christ. People living without Jesus Christ, live without the assurance of God’s love as demonstrated through the gift of His Son Jesus Christ. Without Christ we live a life with no assurance, ever wondering and never sure of the things to come.
Just with the Landy, all I had to do was to restore the power connection through cleaning the connection points. Jesus is the mediator between man and God, He is the connection point needed to be in place in order for us to be filled with power from God through His Holy Spirit that gives us the assurance of a recreated life in Christ. In Ephesians 2:8 Paul explain that it is a gift from God.
Ephesians 2:8-10
For it is by grace [God’s remarkable compassion and favor drawing you to Christ] that you have been saved [actually delivered from judgment and given eternal life] through faith. And this [salvation] is not of yourselves [not through your own effort], but it is the [undeserved, gracious] gift of God; not as a result of [your] works [nor your attempts to keep the Law], so that no one will [be able to] boast or take credit in any way [for his salvation]. For we are His workmanship [His own master work, a work of art], created in Christ Jesus [reborn from above—spiritually transformed, renewed, ready to be used] for good works, which God prepared [for us] beforehand [taking paths which He set], so that we would walk in them [living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us].
Peter said to the people who felt disconnected to God and asked “what are we to do” in Acts 2:37-39 Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart [with remorse and anxiety], and they said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what are we to do?” And Peter said to them, “Repent [change your old way of thinking, turn from your sinful ways, accept and follow Jesus as the Messiah] and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ because of the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise [of the Holy Spirit] is for you and your children and for all who are far away [including the Gentiles], as many as the Lord our God calls to Himself.”
Cleaning the connection points of the cable is like repentance in a biblical context, meaning to turn from a road characterized by rebellion and to turn towards God in an act of obedience. The emphasis is upon actions… and action will result in a well-grounded love as in Romans 8:31-39
What then shall we say to all these things? If God is for us, who can be [successful] against us?He who did not spare [even] His own Son, but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things?Who will bring any charge against God’s elect (His chosen ones)? It is God who justifies us [declaring us blameless and putting us in a right relationship with Himself]. Who is the one who condemns us? Christ Jesus is the One who died [to pay our penalty], and more than that, who was raised [from the dead], and who is at the right hand of God interceding [with the Father] for us.Who shall ever separate us from the love of [a]Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? Just as it is written and forever remains written,
“For Your sake we are put to death all day long;
We are regarded as sheep for the slaughter.”
Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors and gain an overwhelming victory through Him who loved us [so much that He died for us].For I am convinced [and continue to be convinced—beyond any doubt] that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present and threatening, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the [unlimited] love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.