Read Ephesians 3:14-21

History shows us that no army will get far without supply lines that link them to more materials, ammunition, and fuel for the battle.  I feel the same way if we’re going on a camping trip— we’re only staying as long as we have good food and dry clothes— after that, I’m out—which means we don’t typically camp! 

Likewise, no desire to live with a mission will go far without a renewable source of supply for the Christian.  One thing we learn about ourselves is that we are not self-sustaining.  Even our love does not have perpetual motion— it needs to have a supply line that links it to a source that is greater than us.  

In Paul’s prayer for the Christians in Ephesus he prays that God would grant them to be strengthened with power through his Spirit, and that they, being rooted and grounded in love may have strength to understand the magnitude of love of Christ.The reason Paul desires them to understand the love of God and the source of love is “that they may be filled with all the fulness of God.”

What does it mean to be filled with all the fulness of God?  It seems that what Paul is praying for points back to the whole first part of the letter and points to the fulness of the blessing of Christ which is the knowledge of the love of God that has been seen in Christ.  Paul desires for Christians that we understand this love by the power of the Holy Spirit and that we be filled up with the love of Christ in a greater way.  At the great transition in 2:4 Paul wrote, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses made us alive together with Christ.”  Being filled with the fulness of God means that we are being filled up more with the knowledge of his rich mercy and love toward us.

The supply line for the love that we wish to show to others must be securely fixed in the love of God demonstrated to us in Christ.  The strength for the Christian comes from this source—that is why Paul prays for them to understand this love.   This is the supply line that is carrying to the believer all that is essential to life and godliness as we live with a mission on a daily basis.

Live with a Mission today: When we are tempted to think we cannot love another, how does the truth of Paul’s prayer help you remember where the supply of love comes from?  List 5 ways that God has demonstrated this love toward you (use this prayer in Ephesians or Ephesians 2:1-10) and how this love motivates you to love others.