Recently I have been trying to focus my prayer life on praying specific Scripture verses over the situations I bring before the Lord. This week, I was praying Ephesians 3:16-21 for a specific family who is dealing with recent diagnosis of cancer to their eleven year old son. This is a familiar passage to me ("to grasp how wide and high and long and deep is the love of Christ and to know this love") and I have often read/prayed this for the comfort of Christ's love. However as I read it again last night, the next phrase jumped out at me. It reads "to grasp how wide and high and long and deep is the love of Christ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge". One thing I consistently struggle with in my walk with the Lord is wanting to know. I will pray "Lord I will trust you with any information, I just want to know!" Yet the love of Christ is a love that is deeper than needing to know circumstance or have answers. We are comforted in the love of Christ, in the vast measure of his love because of who Christ is, not what is going on around us. Matthew Henry adds in his commentary on this passage "And how desirable to have a fixed sense of the love of God in Christ to our souls!" Today, pray for husband, children, friends, neighbors, pastor, church and your own heart that you might have a sense of the love of God in Christ fixed to your soul.
