Ephesians 3:19
…And to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Reflection: Being filled to the fullness of God
Written By: Pastor Jesse Caro
There are paradoxes in God’s word. “A paradox is a statement or situation that appears self-contradictory or illogical, yet upon closer examination, may reveal a deeper truth or a different perspective.” I just Googled that! Among them are statements like when Paul tells us to be a “living sacrifice.” And here we see one: “to know the love that surpasses knowledge.” God has such amazing love that it can not be known… yet we are to know it. The way that we know this love of God is to be filled with God. I contend that fasting puts us in a position where we are reminded to desire being filled with God above everything else.
Spiritual fasting (if I had to come up with a definition) is “the spiritual discipline in which we give up food in order to experience hunger, to remind a person of their need for, and dependence on, God.” That is, we need God… we need him to sustain and fill us. We need his presence. And herein lies the trick: many of us do not feel a need for God. We do not hunger for God. God, for so many people, is not something (someone) we long for and hunger for. Our passions, too often, lie elsewhere. And so, we engage in fasting. We fast with the heartbeat and desire to remind our bodies that we need God. In our hunger we tell God that we want to hunger for him. This is the power and intent of biblical fasting.
Prayer
Dear Lord, fill us with your fullness and help us to experience deeply the profound love that you have given us.
