3. The aim of being strengthened
Eph 3:17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—
that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
Eph 3:18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
Eph 3:19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses
knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
So, first of all, the strength that Paul prayed for, for the believers, had a purpose. And that is what we see here.
As I see it, it had three purposes: but they are interconnected
• That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith
• That you be rooted in and know the immensity of His love
• That you may be filled with the fulness of God
• That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith
We can say this is the goal of the Christian life. That Christ may live in us, and that He would live through us, ruling over us, using us, that we would be his hands and feet and ears and mouths and eyes. That we commune with Him daily, that He lives in us, and we in Him. This is heaven, indeed, for Christ to make his home within us that we know his voice, his friendship, his counsel, his joy, his peace, his love, his wisdom, his power, and his hope. “That Christ may dwell in our hearts by faith.”
Our hearts refer to our lives. Our hearts represent our souls, where we experience life and make decisions and where we experience hope, joy, sadness and so on. Christ wants to live there, in the inner person. He wants to bring order, and sanity and comfort and be your friend. He is your God. He rules from within. And he dwells by faith, not by sight, not because you have crosses on your walls, or because you have a sticker of Jesus on your wall, or because you post things about Jesus on your Facebook wall. He dwells within us by faith, by trusting in Him, by believing in Him, by looking up to Him with the eyes of faith. We get strong by faith, by grace, by faith in Christ.
Isn’t this the most significant thing in life? That Christ dwells in us, our Savior, as Paul says in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”
Friend, do you know what a joy it is for Christ to dwell in you? For you to become less and less and Him to become more and more. That your interests become less and less, and His interests dominate your thinking and will? Heaven of Heaven is to die to self and live for God. Heaven on earth it is to live in union with Christ, to sup with him, to dine with him, to eat with him of his spiritual blessings, of a clean heart, of sins, forgiven, of souls set free, of the joy of salvation, of hope everlasting, of knowing nothing will separate you from his love. Do you know the man of Nazareth? Have you supped with Him? Are you eating from his table? And you enjoying his fellowship?
INTERETHNICMISSIONS 