“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” – 1 Peter 1:3-9
Ask God to speak to you as you meditate on the above verses by answering these questions:
- What do these verses mean to you?
- Note the blessings God has given His people in 1:3-5. To the best of your understanding, what do each of these four blessings mean?
- What is the connection between knowing the blessings of 1:3-5 and having joy in trials in 1: 6-9?
- What would you change in your life/attitude as a result of these verses?
We would all like to experience more of God in our lives. God wants more for us than we could ever imagine or hope for. But how does one become full of God?
Ephesians 3:16-19 tells us: “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 Lord’s holy people, 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.”
There it is—that we might be filled to all the fullness of God! That’s what we yearn for, what we are chasing, what we so desperately need. Wouldn’t it be incredible to be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God?
Being filled with all the fullness of God is not about what you do. To me, knowing how much God loves me and focused on His love for me, I would be full of Him. When God made you, He designed you to run at optimal level when you are filled with His love, like a NASCAR race car needs a certain type of fuel to run at an optimal level. When you realize how much God loves you and you feed on His love for you, you will experience the fullness of God. And fulness means to be full of everything God is to you and has for you.
Ephesians 3:30 tells you what happens when you experience 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,”
My prayer as a church and as individuals, is that we will experience the fulness of God in our lives in a real and tangible way.
Discussion Questions:
- What does it mean to be be filled with the spirit? (Ephesians 3:16) Is this a one-time experience or a continual reality?
- “For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority.” – Colosians. 2: 9–10. What does that verse mean to you?
- What might Paul be referring to by praying “that you may be filled with all the fullness of God?” How do you think “breadth and length and height and depth” (verse 18) relate to this?
- Pray and seek God’s guidance on how to live a God filled life.