Daily Bible Verses for 5/20/2017
Daily Verse(s)
That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Reading Notes
When Paul speaks of Christ dwelling in us, he is not merely speaking of knowing Jesus, nor is he speaking of superficial claims of repentance. He is speaking about truly understanding the free gift of salvation we have through Jesus alone, by faith alone because of God’s mercy and grace toward us. Paul is not speaking about just accepting Jesus by word alone, then carrying on with our lives never to speak of Him again. A superficial faith, never really reading or desiring God’s word, the Bible. Rather, Paul is talking about Jesus making His home in our hearts and taking over our lives. In other words, Paul is speaking about our love for Jesus being so sincere, so real, that we allow Him to take over our hearts and our lives. The results of which is we live our lives for Him and through His power. Paul is asking that we would allow Jesus to settle down, move in and take up residence in our hearts and make our lives His own. That our hearts would be so consumed with Jesus and what He has done for us, that our hearts forever belong to Him. And that our love for Jesus be reflected in all that we say and do. When this happens and the Holy Spirit fills us with His presence, that’s when lives change.
And not only change, but become transformed into something extraordinarily wonderful for the kingdom of God. And it’s this type of spiritual power that marks the lives of those who submit to God’s word, and to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Moreover, Paul is telling us that this is part of a real relationship with Jesus. But a lot of us may be wondering, how is this even possible? We know ourselves, we know how easy it is for us to get sidetracked and to focus on our needs, our wants and our desires. We know how easy it is to be consumed with our lives here and now, focusing on the world in front of us, not thinking about the kingdom of God, let alone eternity to come. Dear child of God, there is a wonderful secret to all of this! And that is God never intended for us to do this on our own, as a mater of fact, we cannot do this under our own power! That is why God has given us His indwelling spirit, that is why we need to submit to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. And when we do, He will do the rest through God’s process of spiritual growth in us call “sanctification.” If we would just submit to God, He will work in our hearts and minds to build up the perseverance we need to live for Jesus. And when we love Jesus and through the power of the Holy Spirit in us, we discipline our minds to the study of His word and the following of the Holy Spirit, it’s then our lives change. Moreover, this power is freely available to every believer, God is waiting to give it to us abundantly, through faith in order to help us become a fully devoted follower of Christ.