Eph 3 How Great is Our love for the Lord?

Scripture selections are taken from the Rock Church Daily Bread Reading schedule for each month. “Lena’s Journalin’” are Lena’s comments on the specific passages from her Daily Journal.

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Ephesians 3:1-21
God's Secret Plan Revealed
1I, Paul, am a prisoner of Christ Jesus because of my preaching to you Gentiles. 2As you already know, God has given me this special ministry of announcing his favor to you Gentiles. 3As I briefly mentioned earlier in this letter, God himself revealed his secret plan to me. 4As you read what I have written, you will understand what I know about this plan regarding Christ. 5God did not reveal it to previous generations, but now he has revealed it by the Holy Spirit to his holy apostles and prophets.
6And this is the secret plan: The Gentiles have an equal share with the Jews in all the riches inherited by God's children. Both groups have believed the Good News, and both are part of the same body and enjoy together the promise of blessings through Christ Jesus. 7By God's special favor and mighty power, I have been given the wonderful privilege of serving him by spreading this Good News.
8Just think! Though I did nothing to deserve it, and though I am the least deserving Christian there is, I was chosen for this special joy of telling the Gentiles about the endless treasures available to them in Christ. 9I was chosen to explain to everyone this plan that God, the Creator of all things, had kept secret from the beginning.
10God's purpose was to show his wisdom in all its rich variety to all the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms. They will see this when Jews and Gentiles are joined together in his church. 11This was his plan from all eternity, and it has now been carried out through Christ Jesus our Lord.
12Because of Christ and our faith in him, we can now come fearlessly into God's presence, assured of his glad welcome. 13So please don't despair because of what they are doing to me here. It is for you that I am suffering, so you should feel honored and encouraged.
Paul's Prayer for Spiritual Empowering
14When I think of the wisdom and scope of God's plan, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, F4 15the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. 16I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will give you mighty inner strength through his Holy Spirit. 17And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God's marvelous love. 18And may you have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love really is. 19May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it. Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from God.
20Now glory be to God! By his mighty power at work within us, he is able to accomplish infinitely more than we would ever dare to ask or hope. 21May he be given glory in the church and in Christ Jesus forever and ever through endless ages. Amen.
FOOTNOTES:F4: Some manuscripts read the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Copyright Statement: Holy Bible, The New Living TranslationCopyright © 1996 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved. For more information about the NLT, please click here.

Daily Meditation/Recital/Question
Isaiah 58:12 (New Living Translation)
12 Your children will rebuild the deserted ruins of your cities. Then you will be known as the people who rebuild their walls and cities.

~ Lena’s Journalin’~
God’s secrets are meant to be revealed. The Lord wants to know who can be trusted with His plans and secrets, and who truly wants to know for the express purpose of being a part of making God’s plans happen while on earth!
Paul calls himself a prisoner, why? The purposes of God so captivate and drive him, that he’s purposely, become their slave.
Is that how you feel about God, His plans, His love and His purposes?
Does the love of Christ so burn in your heart that it captivates your thoughts and actions? Then it is so overwhelming that it compels you to go out wherever you already are in the earth and beyond and share of this great love and the very plan of salvation to this world?
Do you love the plans of God so much that you desire to hear more of them unfold, not just plans to help you yourself, but plans of freedom for others? Does this love continually lead you to God’s house and to incline your ear to the prophets, purposing to do whatever is presented in the continued gospel message?
This gospel is NOT about what we deserve or what others deserve. It is about love that goes and reaches into tight sports where no one deserves this love. We receive and we give special favor to the world, the same favor we’ve received, we freely give all of Him not holding back.
How do we serve God? How do we show appreciation for this undeserving, yet freely given, gospel message? We preach, we live, we share.
All of us are chosen for this purpose, there is not one who is not called.
Whatever it takes, whatever it takes. Is that the extent and intent of this love of God in you? I become as He is so I will win men as He did. I change on purpose, to bring heaven to earth.
I pray the love of God will well up on the inside of you today, to the overflow, to overflow on a very deserving God and a whole lot of undeserving people.