Dr Praise #3
DIAGNOSIS: As one who has provided pastoral care for over half a century, I have observed that people are often constricted by the smallness of their self centered world. They need to break out of their boxes of me, myself and mine and be stretched by a grander more glorious vision of God. There is nothing more expansive than contemplating the dimensions of divine love.
PRESCRIPTION: Ephesians 3:18-19 is by no means a bitter pill. Rather it is a mind altering medication. “I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
PROGNOSIS: Our containers are too small. In order to be filled with the fullness of God we need larger vessels. Our borders of bias and our parameters of prejudice need to be transcended by something as expansive as the universe. That something is the very essence of God which is love: a selfless, sacrificial love that Jesus brought into this world from beyond time and space.
PRACTICE: Let me suggest this exercise. Bring alongside Ephesians 3:18 the most familiar verse in the entire Bible, John 3:16. Notice how they so beautifully dove-tail. What is the breadth of divine love? “God so loved the world….” We often draw circles to shut people out who are different from us. God draws circles which are inclusive of the whole world and everyone in it. What is the length of love? The answer is again in John 3:16-“that he gave his only begotten son.” God went to great lengths to demonstrate his love for us-he cared enough to send the best. His love reaches as far as the cross. What about the depths of love? “That we should not perish….” God sent his son into a perishing world. Truly there is no bottom to the heart of God. Corry Ten Boom (who survived the holocaust) was fond of saying: “There is no pit so deep that God’s love is not deeper still.” Let’s practice on the heights of divine love: “…but have everlasting life.” The goal of love is to find us in the depths of despair and lift us to the heights of life eternal.
CHALLENGE: Spend some quality time meditating on the down reach, the up reach, the outreach and the in reach of divine love and let it stretch you out to your full potential. Don’t allow yourself to be limited by the smallness of a time bound, three dimensional world which shuts you in on every side.
DIAGNOSIS: As one who has provided pastoral care for over half a century, I have observed that people are often constricted by the smallness of their self centered world. They need to break out of their boxes of me, myself and mine and be stretched by a grander more glorious vision of God. There is nothing more expansive than contemplating the dimensions of divine love.
PRESCRIPTION: Ephesians 3:18-19 is by no means a bitter pill. Rather it is a mind altering medication. “I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
PROGNOSIS: Our containers are too small. In order to be filled with the fullness of God we need larger vessels. Our borders of bias and our parameters of prejudice need to be transcended by something as expansive as the universe. That something is the very essence of God which is love: a selfless, sacrificial love that Jesus brought into this world from beyond time and space.
PRACTICE: Let me suggest this exercise. Bring alongside Ephesians 3:18 the most familiar verse in the entire Bible, John 3:16. Notice how they so beautifully dove-tail. What is the breadth of divine love? “God so loved the world….” We often draw circles to shut people out who are different from us. God draws circles which are inclusive of the whole world and everyone in it. What is the length of love? The answer is again in John 3:16-“that he gave his only begotten son.” God went to great lengths to demonstrate his love for us-he cared enough to send the best. His love reaches as far as the cross. What about the depths of love? “That we should not perish….” God sent his son into a perishing world. Truly there is no bottom to the heart of God. Corry Ten Boom (who survived the holocaust) was fond of saying: “There is no pit so deep that God’s love is not deeper still.” Let’s practice on the heights of divine love: “…but have everlasting life.” The goal of love is to find us in the depths of despair and lift us to the heights of life eternal.
CHALLENGE: Spend some quality time meditating on the down reach, the up reach, the outreach and the in reach of divine love and let it stretch you out to your full potential. Don’t allow yourself to be limited by the smallness of a time bound, three dimensional world which shuts you in on every side.
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