Imagine...

Ephesians 3:17-21

After Paul prays that the Ephesian church would be strengthened by the Holy Spirit living in them and Christ being completely at home in their hearts, Paul asks that they would be able to grasp the dimensions of Christ's love and experience the reality of it in their lives. It is a love that is knowable but it cannot be fully known. A love that can be experienced and is very vast. Upon experiencing this love, Paul says that we will be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. This reminds me of the verse at the end of chapter one which says that the church is the fullness of him who fills all things in all ways. As we (I don't think it's just about me as an individual but about us as the body) understand the mysterious unity of the Church and the love that Christ has for us (as his Bride and Body), we somehow express the fullness of Christ. I don't understand it but I have to believe it.
As Paul reflects on the dimensions of Christ's love he bursts into praise of God. This is worship! It is Paul's response to his experience with God. So often it feels like we come and manufacture worship and we blame the worship team, the song selection or the atmosphere when we don't experience worship. The truth is that a) worship is not about us getting a good feeling, it is about expressing our praise to God and b) we are to blame because corporate worship is actually supposed to be about all of us bringing our individual experiences with God and sharing them with each other, giving glory to God.
Paul declares God to be the one who can do immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine. This must come directly from his experiences on missionary journeys and even his own conversion - who'd have imagined that! I really like Paul's description: the one who can do immeasurable more than all we can ask or imagine. Not just a little bit more but immeasurably more. I don't know about you but I can imagine some pretty big things...