Open to God’s Love
READ
There's something profoundly vulnerable about opening ourselves to be loved. We've all experienced the sting of rejection, the disappointment of unmet expectations, or the exhaustion of trying to earn affection through performance. So when Paul prays for the Ephesians to grasp the dimensions of Christ's love, he's not asking for a simple cognitive exercise—he's calling for a revolution of the heart.
Let’s take a moment to read Ephesians 3:16-19:
"I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord's holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God."
REFLECT
Notice how Paul structures this prayer. He begins with a request for inner strengthening through the Spirit, creating space for Christ to dwell in their hearts through faith. This is preparation in its purest form: making room in the inner sanctuary of our being for God's presence to take up residence. But this isn't a one-time event—the word "dwell" suggests a permanent settling in, like a family moving into a new home and making it their own.
The preparation Paul describes here is deeply relational. Christ doesn't just visit our hearts; He dwells there. He doesn't drop by when convenient; He makes His home in us. This kind of divine indwelling requires something from us—not perfect behavior or flawless understanding, but faith. Faith that opens the door. Faith that says, "Come in and stay."
But here's where many of us get stuck: we treat God's love like a reward we need to earn rather than a reality we need to receive. We think preparation means making ourselves worthy of love, when actually it means making ourselves available to love that's already there. Paul's prayer assumes God's love is abundant, glorious, and eager to fill us. Our job isn't to create it but to make space for it.
The dimensions Paul mentions—width, length, height, and depth—suggest something beyond measurement. God's love isn't contained by our categories or limited by our capacity to understand it. It's love that surpasses knowledge, which means we can't think our way into it. We have to experience our way into it.
This is where the meta-practice of reception becomes crucial. To receive God's love without needing to control, filter, or immediately respond requires tremendous trust. Our natural instinct is to analyze: "Do I deserve this? What's the catch? How do I maintain this feeling?" But Paul's prayer suggests a different approach—being rooted and established in love like a tree planted by streams of water.
When a tree is rooted and established, it doesn't work to produce fruit. The fruit comes naturally from the life flowing through its established root system. Similarly, when we're rooted and established in God's love, spiritual fruit isn't something we manufacture through effort—it flows from the life of Christ dwelling within us.
This kind of reception is active, not passive. It requires us to resist our tendencies to filter God's love through our past experiences or present insecurities. It means receiving God's assessment of our worth rather than our own or others'. It means trusting that what God reveals about His love for us is true, even when it contradicts what we feel about ourselves.
The goal Paul describes is breathtaking: "that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." This isn't about becoming God, but about becoming fully human as God intended—completely filled with divine love, life, and presence. It's about our inner being expanding to contain more of God's reality until we overflow with His goodness.
But this fullness comes through receiving, not achieving. We don't earn our way to the fullness of God; we open our way to it. We prepare our hearts to be loved completely, and then we practice receiving that love on God's terms, trusting that His love is not only available but is the very best thing for us.
In our achievement-oriented culture, this can feel uncomfortable. We're trained to work for what we want, to prove our worth, to earn our keep. But God's love operates on entirely different principles. It's given freely, received gratefully, and experienced transformatively.
RESPOND
Take a moment to process what God might be leading you to do in light of what you read.
What makes it difficult for you to receive love without trying to earn it? How has performance-based thinking affected your relationship with God?
Paul prays for power to "grasp" God's love. What would it look like for you to actively receive God's love rather than passively hope for it?
How might being "rooted and established" in God's love change the way you approach challenges, relationships, or personal growth?
REST
Take a moment to rest in God’s presence and consider one thing you can take away from your time reading, then close your devotional experience by praying:
Lord, prepare my heart to receive Your love fully and freely. Help me resist the urge to earn what You freely give, and strengthen me to trust that Your love for me is both real and good. Root and establish me in Your love until it overflows into every area of my life. Amen.