God's perfect love unites

Father, out of Your honorable and glorious riches, strengthen Your people. Fill their souls with the power of Your Spirit so that through faith the Anointed One will reside in their hearts. May love be the rich soil where their lives take root. May it be the bedrock where their lives are founded so that together with all of Your people they will have the power to understand that the love of the Anointed is infinitely long, wide, high, and deep, surpassing everything anyone previously experienced. God, may Your fullness flood through their entire beings.  (Ephesians 3:16-19 VOICE)

God's strength exhibited in our lives comes not from within us, but from within his presence - that which we call his glory.  Paul's prayer to the Ephesian church rings true for the needs of our society today - may we be strengthened, not from within our own convictions or mindset, but out of all that makes God honorable and glorious - all of him that dwells within us as he takes up residence within us.  Empty and hurting souls everywhere are counting on those whose souls have been made alive by the Spirit of God to begin to exhibit the glory of God - not to act out of emotional upset set Topsy-turvy by the events occurring all around us.  God's people draw a strength from within, an "evenness" of emotion which is reflective in each action.  Our prayer for our nation is not so much that we come to respect one life over another, as all life matters, my friends.  God sent his Son, Jesus, to die for each life - regardless of where they live, how they dress, what they do for a profession, the beliefs they hold, or the manner in which they have conducted their lives up to this point. All lives matter!  Some things I think we need to embrace from Paul's prayer for the believers at Ephesus:

1. May love be the rich soil where their lives take root - God's love comes into the corners and recesses of our minds, hearts, and souls - in turn, it is this love which becomes the "rich soil" where the love which respects all life begins to take root.  Remember this - in human terms, love is imperfect.  It is a little too demanding and a little bit self-seeking.  We are all imperfect beings, struggling to make sense of a world filled with things contrary to God's love.  We live in a "fallen world" - one in which evil exists.  The counter-attack of God's love is that which sends evil running.  It is the "seed" which needs to be nurtured more than anything else today.

2. May it be the bedrock where their lives are founded - love becomes a bedrock upon which we unite and are able to stand strong.  In response to evil's vile and viscous attacks, love has the ability to win out each and every time.  God's people possess the power to disarm powers and principalities, in the air and on this earth - all because the love of God indwells, empowers, and unites them in own common action - to reveal the hope which is God and God himself.

3. The love of the Anointed is infinitely long, wide, high, and deep, surpassing everything anyone previously experienced - man's love is marginally short, conditionally limited, and imperfectly exhibited.  God's love is unconditional, surpassing all expiration, and perfect in all ways.  We must desire this love above all other - so that we can be united in peace, living in harmony with each other, and growing strong in the perfect love which settles troubled souls.  We cannot experience this through any other source - for it is unique to God himself and is only present where God is present!  Let us not forget the power of love is revealed in grace and mercy.  Just sayin!

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