The Full Measure of God
I’ve been loving God and desirous of
living my life to know Him and please Him for many years now,
but I don’t feel that my soul has barely approached the
fullness of the measure of God. I’ve met a lot of people,
and read from even more, who are desperate in their pursuit of
knowing God, but I don’t think of one that I believe has
been filled to the full measure of God in their lives. I’ve
never really thought that there was truly a full level that we
could reach before heaven.
One phrase in Paul’s beautiful prayer for the Ephesians goes like this,
“and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled
to the measure of all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:19). There is a
measure in your inner man, and it was created to hold the fullness of God and
His love. It has a filling point. Do you know what it is like to experience fullness?
Do you know the experience of emptiness? How do you fill up on God? What would
it be like to be filled up to the measure of the fullness of God? I think David
must have felt it when he wrote, “my cup overflows” (Psalm 23:5).
It must be possible to be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God even
on earth.
Perhaps David’s Psalm shows the way. You must pay attention to God’s
love as it is given. David compared his relationship with God as if he were a
sheep and God were his shepherd. He witnessed the ways God tenderly gave him
his daily provisions of food, drink, rest and protection. When was the last time
you celebrated that God gives you air to breathe, beauty to take in, sunrises,
animals, and all the wonders of this world? David also explains how God directs
you to a path. There is no other path. If you are taking another way to God besides
the Path of Righteousness for His Name’s Sake, you will not be
filled to the full measure of the fullness of God. It’s not an easy path
because our flesh will fight us every step that we take. It can be an easy path
to take when you admit you are powerless to walk in it and ask God to help you
put each step in front of the other. Walking the Path of Righteousness will
require that you give up on your quest to look good, be well thought of, or impress
man. The sole motivation for walking this path must be for the glory of God’s
great name to be praised. To be filled up to the full measure of God, your path
will definitely lead to the Valley of the Shadow of Death. Suffering
is part of every one of our journeys. But, suffering is the necessary passageway
to the table that is prepared before you in the presence of your enemies.
My question is, what measure of God and His love would your gauge indicate? Are
you like David, just overwhelmed that his cup is overflowing and knowing as a
complete fact, as he knows nothing else, so certain that goodness and mercy will
follow him all the days of his life?
The measure of the fullness of God in our lives is possible to feel. I want to
pray Paul’s prayer over you. Ephesians 3:14-21
“For this reason I kneel before
the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth
derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he
may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner
being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.
And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,
may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how
wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and
to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may
be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably
more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that
is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in
Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever!
Amen.”
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