August 17

Read: Ephesians 3:14-21

For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ… that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith… that ye may be filled with all the fulness of God (Ephesians 3:14-19).

Filled With All The Fullness Of God

“All the fulness of God”! What a wonder! The sanctified life begins in a moment of glorious crisis, the moment when we give ourselves utterly to God and He gives himself fully to us. But the sanctified life is more than a glorious beginning — it can be a yet more glorious fellowship across the years of our days.

Begun in consecration and faith, it continues in obedience and trust. Started by coming to God with a fundamental soul need, it is deepened and enriched by our continued coming to Him always with all the needs of our lives. Beginning with a heart-warming certainty of the presence of the Holy Spirit, we may continue with this glad assurance of His unseen presence until that day when we shall see God face to face.

May the writer and the reader join the Apostle Paul in this prayer, for each other, and for every true child of God? “For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; 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” (Ephesians 3:14-19). Amen.

There is a place of full release, Near to the heart of God; A place where all is joy and peace, Near to the heart of God.

— C. B. McAfee