Ephesians 3:16-19

Posted in By Red Beard 0 comments

May He grant you out of the rich treasury of His glory to be strengthened and reinforced with mighty power in the inner man by the Holy Spirit. May Christ through your faith dwell in your hearts! May you be rooted deep in love and founded securely on love, that you may have the power and be strong to apprehend and grasp with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth; to know the love of Christ, which far surpasses mere knowledge[without experience]; that you may be filled unto all the fullness of God!
Ephesians 3:16-19

I can't even tell you how much I have needed the strengthening and reinforcement with mighty power in the inner man by the Holy Spirit. Not just a little, but to the point of without that strengthening I would have been a shell, only a shadow of my former self. And it's not even something that is necessarily tangible even that I can point to and say here's what makes sense about why I now feel this release and freedom. The ability to grapple with and face those mountains that are ominously dark ahead of me. It's not even like those dark mountains aren't still directly before me, but their weight is different now.

Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God. They are brought to their knees and fall, but we rise up and stand firm. ps20:7-8

It doesn't make any sense, this level of distress doesn't just depart and give up and let a person stand up. It heaps itself on all the more when you are at your weakest. My strength had failed and and I should have fallen into ruin and despair for all time. Yet we rise up and stand firm. I cannot account for this strengthening in the inner man. Lord too great is your affection and love for me, more than I can comprehend or lay claim to deserving. Lord to know the love of Christ is to see you defy the spirit of this age.

I can't tell you how to lay ahold of this strengthening, or what circumstances should precede it or what will follow. I can tell you hope in the Lord and look to Him. He will come when most unexpected and in a way most unimagined.