Grounded in Love

God, out of his glorious riches, offers you the privilege to sink the roots of your life deep in the soil of his love. Then you will be a like tree planted by streams of water producing fruit in its season. God in his incomparable great power offers you the privilege to build your life on the foundation of his unconditional love. Then you will be like a building resting on a firm foundation of love, which can’t be shaken.

God’s offer of a life that is rooted and grounded in love is available freely to anyone who invites Christ to dwell in their heart through faith. 

When your life is rooted in God’s love, God is the wellspring which nourishes every aspect of your life. You no longer need to find nourishment from other people or the things you have. When your life is built on the foundation of God’s love, you no longer have to pursue your career or family or relationships to find stability during the storms of life. 

Loving relationships are not the norm in our fallen world. Whether at work or in the church, as long as we live in a fallen world we will be hurt by other people. Our responses may escalate the conflict or temporarily calm the situation. At those times, when we rely on our own strength our roots will shrivel up and die. When we are hurt by other people, our own power is not sufficient to maintain stability in our lives. 

Only the glorious riches of our Father, strengthening you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, is capable of keeping your feet firmly planted on love when people try to control and manipulate you or when people say and do things that hurt you mentally or emotionally. 

Only God who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work in us, can bring substantial emotional healing, the peace to sleep at night and the strength to get up in the morning. 

Christ’s love which your life is rooted in is broad enough to encompass all people. Christ’s love which your life is established on is long enough to last for eternity. Christ’s love is deep enough to touch any need, any sin, any hurt. Christ’s love is high enough to take you up to glory and beyond. The love that your life is rooted and established on is beyond comprehension. 

A life rooted in love is a life that pours out love for others. When your life is rooted and established in love there is no place for arrogance, no place for controlling or manipulating relationships, no place for pettiness or pride. It is the life of one who is an agent of peace, unity and reconciliation. 

When your life is rooted and established in love, you discover that you are part of a larger family. You belong to Christ and you belong to all those whose lives are rooted in established in love. You need each individual in the body of Christ to grasp the whole of God’s love. The God who has made you part of His eternal family, provides his love to build a stable, practical Christian life worthy of being part of his family. God loves you as much as he loves each member of his family. God loves you so much that you have an equally important part in his temple which he is building as every other member of his family. 

Prayer 

For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. 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. 

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. (Eph 3:14-21)