Before I share this Bible study with you there is something you need to know:
The pastor who was leading this Bible study, my dear Pastor Bob Gunn, has terminal cancer.
Why do you need to know this?-you might ask.
Well, because what I am about to share, which he shared to me, only makes sense when you comprehend it through the Spirit. It is a prayer that Paul the apostle made and he too understood this can only make sense through the Spirit. To human knowledge this sounds insane.
But other than sounding insane, it might sound insensitive coming from the wrong person.
If you hear what I am about to share with you from someone who has never experienced true grief and sorrow, it doesn't quite have the same impact.
So it is important for me that you know that Bod has terminal cancer.
Ephesians 3
14 For this reason I bow my knees to the Father [f]of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, 16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, 17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— 19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 20 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, 21 to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
The last portion of this Bible excerpt is widely quoted and misused. "To Him Who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think...." What do Christians think this means? What do you think it means? Do you read that verse out of context and take it to mean that God will grant you whatever you ask of Him just because He can grant it?
It is interesting that Pastor Bob started out asking: "When we pray for others, do we ask for external needs (financial problems, health problems, relational problems) or do we pray for others' spiritual needs (desire to seek His Word and obey, increased faith, a life that is intentionally seeking to glorify Him, and work for the Kingdom). I even ventured to remark: "What do we ask others to pray for for us?" Do we tell others to pray for a deeper relationship with Christ as much as we ask for prayers for our external needs? Paul is praying for our relationship with Christ. His encouragement to have might in our inner man through the Spirit is not so that we can be prosperous, get that job we've been praying for, get that relationship we've been longing for, get that raise, or health, or any other thing we seek on this side of life. He is asking that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith.
First, Bob made sure we understood the difference Paul is trying to make by saying inner man. You see, two man of equal physical capacity can go for a run, but the one who stops first will stop not because of a difference in their physical strength but a difference in their will (inner man). Paul had extensive experience in how what happens in this life can break your will when it is not rooted and grounded in love. This is the reason we have known many Christians who have walked away from the faith when the road got tough. They didn't have deep roots to keep them steady in the storm. They are a tree that has toppled over when the soil was soft.
What is Paul's prayer for having deep roots? Comprehend the width, length, depth, and height of the love of Christ. Here is were it gets really interesting. You see, God loves you too much to leave you as He found you. C.S. Lewis made this statement in The Problem with Pain. He even illustrated it this way: you get a new dog. This dog is not house broken. He doesn't like that you are training him. An older dog would tell him he gets in return a dry, warm home, a full belly each day, love and affection and safety. He would tell the young dog it is all worth it, but this dog can't see the benefits while its being house broken. He sees it as mean. The same things happens to a child. His parents say no. They explain to him that the "no" is to keep him from harms way. He perceives this as mean. As humans, we have experienced what a dog that is not house broken will do to a home. If the dog can't be house broken, he will not remain in the home. We have all experienced what a child who is used to getting his way and has no limits set looks and acts like. You don't want to be near a child like that and he has a very hard time making friends. Why, then, is it so hard for us to perceive the hard things in our life as coming from a loving God?
When we try to picture the width, length, depth, and height of God's love that Paul is praying we comprehend, we picture His love as "loving." We think of His goodness, His blessings toward us, His mercies and forgiveness, His love in Christ dying for us, taking us on as His children, preparing a home for us with Him, seating us next to Him, interceding for us, and making us free of sin. We don't think that His love also involves changing us into a new creature and that requires breaking us first. We don't think that what He wants for us is holiness and He will not leave us as He found us and that house breaking will be painful. Sometimes, it will be VERY painful.
This is why it was important for me that you knew Bob had cancer. He is someone, who only through faith because otherwise this is bonkers, that can say that his condition comes from a loving God still changing him, breaking him in love so that he may be more like Christ.
As Bob was sharing the Bible study, I started seeing that last portion in a different light. Exceedingly abundantly above all we ask or think.... What could that be for me? My personal answer: to be like Christ. I could never ask or imagine being like Christ. I feel like that is what Paul would have wanted us to think of when telling us of this power that works in us.
Could we see a loved one in need or grief and say to them: "That is God's love in action!"? It would indeed be crazy talk if we didn't understand any of this through faith.
I heard this while battling a strong bout of depression.
I had been downcast lower than I could comprehend why. Is it clinical depression? Is there something wrong in my brain? It is my cancer coming back which is why my body feels so weak and aching?
Can I openly share to you, whoever you are out there that reads this, that I've battled suicide thoughts?
And in the grief-stricken state I was, hearing Bob say this dark desert is God's love in action somehow lifted my Spirit. I write Spirit with a capital "s" because it was not my own spirit that was strengthened. It was my inner man through His Spirit, just like Paul prayed.
Bob closed the study by reminding us that the prayer said "comprehend with all the saints" and "to Him be the glory in the Church." And that is exactly what he did for me in that moment. He reminded me that the width, length, depth, and height of God's love encompasses so much more than I usually think. That in His love He is not taking my desert away as I've asked Him to (and which He could very easily take away), but He is with me there, changing me, transforming me, and making me (even beyond what I could ask or imagine) more like Him. And it was His church and His saints who strengthen that faith and love, as Bod did for me and we do for him.
I have a very dear friend in a very deep, dark desert. I'm hurting with her and for her. I ventured to tell her: "All this is God's love in action. It is part of the width, length, depth, and height of His love. His love is too big for this to be out of its reach." She was strengthen by this and even shared it with those who are hurting along her. My brothers and sisters, this is crazy talk to the world. I pray you are strengthened like Paul strengthened Bob, Bob strengthen me, and I hope to strengthen you, all inside the width, length, depth, and height of His love.
