September 7

Read: Ephesians 3:14-21

For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father… that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God (Ephesians 3:14, 19).

God Is Able

Can God use me to win a friend to Jesus and to lead him on into entire sanctification? Yes, if I sincerely believe that Christ can do as much for my friend as He has done for me.

I shall be best prepared to go to my friend when I have meditated long enough upon the wonder of what God has done for my own life. How deep is the peace that comes from knowing my sins are forgiven? What sorrows have I been spared by inviting Christ to guide my choices? What heartaches, caused by old sins, have been healed by forgiveness and restoration? What tension and turmoil have been removed by God’s sanctifying power? What inner strength for difficult days has come to me through the presence of the Holy Spirit?

It was the wonder of God’s blessing upon a human life that lifted Paul’s spirit. In the glow of that realization he could pray for others: “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.”

Do I, today, sense again something of this ministry of God to my own spirit? And do I believe that Christ can do for my friend what He has done for me? If I do, I shall scarcely be able to wait to tell him:

I have a peace; it is calm as a river-­ A peace that the friends of this world never knew. My Saviour alone is its Author and Giver, And, oh, could I know it was given to you!

— S. O’Maley Cluff