Full Life

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of His glory He may grant you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Ephesians 3:14-19

Summer of 2026 arrived bringing the World Cup to the United States with all its intense excitement and diversity. It also brought a young man in our family to commit to an evangelistic outreach among the various crowds chanting and cheering for their national teams. He asked me to “Pray for the Lord to bring people to be saved.” He also requested prayer “for my strength.” He needed energy for long days standing in the sun, and perseverance to approach people who might not be interested in prayer or conversations about the gospel. But even more, he needed—as all Christians do—what the apostle Paul prayed for the Ephesians: “to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being.”

Paul asked the Father for strength and power “so that Christ might dwell in your hearts through faith.” Jesus promised His Spirit would dwell, or live permanently, within all who trusted Him as Savior (John 14:17, 19-20). Paul’s bold petition would mean a new, energizing consciousness of Christ’s real presence with and in believers. It meant deepening dependence on Him, with His very personal and purposeful direction. This living, vital, daily closeness with the Savior would never end, Paul said, because it was rooted in Christ’s eternal love. 

Do we take too lightly that “Jesus loves us?” The apostle prayed that the Spirit would give believers power to comprehend the vastness of Jesus’ love—love stretching in all directions, through all time and space, around the whole cosmos, and through all our experiences. A love that helps us overcome habitual sin, transforming us in daily life to be like Him. 

Paul continued praying that believers “know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge.” This increases our experience of this immense love; His Spirit enlarging love for Christ within us, empowering us for praise, obedience, and active love for others. 

The outcome Paul prayed for was “to be filled with all the fullness of God.” What is that? God’s “fullness” unites all His magnificent characteristics and abilities—those we worship, that belong only to Him, such as the highest majesty, omnipotence, and eternality—and those He creates in us by His Spirit, such as kindness, joy, forgiveness, and love. 

How do we experience this fullness? Peter, who had previously denied the Lord, preached on Pentecost, “Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36). Paul wrote of being caught up in the third heaven and then was reassured that Jesus’ grace was sufficient for Paul’s weakness (2 Corinthians 12:1-9). Witnessing the glorified Jesus, John wrote, “Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him” (Revelation 1:7). Did these reflect experience of God’s fullness? And what about today, as a young man desires to speak the gospel to people at the World Cup? 

Perhaps the best description of the Father’s fullness came from our Lord: “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water” (John 7:38-39). And though its completion will await our seeing Him face to face, yes, God intends to fill His people with His fullness!

This glorious fullness is God’s gift. We begin to enter its grace and light as we praise Him from His Word. We experience the power of His fullness as His Spirit turns our thoughts to Him before reexamining our troubled circumstances. We even stand and speak for Him, relying on the expansive love of Christ, our strong foundation forever.