Rooted in Love - Your Nightly Prayer - June 24th

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Your Nightly Prayer

Rooted in Love
by Britt Mooney

TONIGHT’S SCRIPTURE

"And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ." - Ephesians 3:17-18

SOMETHING TO PONDER

A plant doesn’t get far without the right root system. Of course, it begins with a seed, a certain DNA, and the process begins in the unseen, underground. Other elements prove important, namely the right soil. The correct ground or environment enables the roots to grow deep and strong. Once the plant breaks through the surface and grows, it eventually produces fruit. If a plant doesn’t produce fruit, the problem lies deep at the root.

Paul writes to the Ephesian church, and he has a goal for his prayer—that the church might understand the complex reality of God’s love in Christ. That love has width, length, height, and depth, space to explore and exist within. And yet Paul mentions a prerequisite to comprehending the love of Christ. First, they must be rooted in love. Being rooted in love results in a greater understanding of the same. Not only rooted but established with the right seed. Other translations use the term “grounded,” pointing to a security within God’s love. When we find our identity secure within God’s love, we can explore and further grasp the different works of the love of Christ.

And Paul also gives the right soil: all the Lord’s holy people. We can’t practice God’s love alone. Our love for God naturally flows into loving others. Jesus’ “new” commandment was to love one another as he loved us. We can only do this in the community, dealing with difficult situations with grace and compassion. With the right seed and in the right soil of the family of God, we discover greater truths of Jesus’ love.

YOUR NIGHTLY PRAYER

Heavenly Father,
Thank you for sharing your love with me. Establish me with the seed and the root of your great love. Let the seed of Christ take root in my heart and grow strong through your Spirit. Help me engage with your family, where grace and truth can be expressed in real, practical ways. Teach me the width, length, height, and depth of your love. Let my life bear the fruit of compassion to see you in my life.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen.

THREE THINGS TO MEDITATE UPON

1. How has God shown his love to you personally? Think of ways he’s communicated his abundant love to you.

2. How have you found your identity and security not in your ability or effort but in his extravagant love? How could you rest more in his love?

3. What is the community of faith where you live out and practice God’s love? How do you make this a priority?

Britt Mooney Britt Mooney lives and tells great stories. As an author of fiction and non-fiction, he is passionate about teaching ministries and nonprofits the power of storytelling to inspire and spread truth. Mooney has a podcast called Kingdom Over Coffee and is a published author of We Were Reborn for This: The Jesus Model for Living Heaven on Earth as well as Say Yes: How God-Sized Dreams Take Flight.