As I’ve been preparing to write each Tuesday for Holy Beautiful on our MINDS, I was brought back to a passage out of Ephesians that holds special significance to my personal spiritual journey.
“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.”
Ephesians 3:16-19 NIV
During my mid-twenties I went though a time of great sin and betrayal of my husband, friends, and family. (for all the outrageous details of my testimony, click here!) My mind was awash in lies, my thinking bent on sinning further and further. I was utterly lost in my mind- thinking left was right, up was down, and yes… not to be cliched… but wrong was right.
It didn’t start so starkly black and white, no. Rather Satan gently led me through a little blurred line here, slightly askew thinking there- bit by bit- until my thoughts were so ‘off’ that I no longer knew truth from lies.
My husband prayed that passage over me for a good, long while. Beseeching the Father on my behalf for a mind that KNEW the length and breadth of His love for me and would UNDERSTAND (past just book knowledge) the overwhelming insight His spirit can bring.
Dear ones- as I wrote last week, our minds are so important in having control over. So often we are our own worst enemy in not treating own selves with proper handling. We don’t give ourselves enough credit, or perhaps not enough grace. We live in past shame or in the shadow of inadequacy. Our minds can’t see (or refuse to see?) the preciousness that we are. We don’t know the mind of Christ- how He sees us. Oh to see myself through His eyes!
During my time of sin, so many of my actions were partially a result of not understanding how much I was cherished by the Father. I didn’t see or know my worth. I treated myself horribly- my body, my mind, my soul. I needed a mindfulness and understanding intervention. I needed spiritual insight! This passage was that ticket! Much to God’s glory- his prayers were answered and they continue to be daily in my life. But it wasn’t until I started understanding my worth to my Father, how my sin devastated Him, how the lies I’d bought into flew in the face of His grace and mercy to me- that the fallacy of my life began to unravel and eventually truth rang out. The undoing of the web of deceit, both within myself and without, took time, but my husbands prayer- that the eyes of my heart would be enlightened to KNOW- fought so many of those battles for me.
So I want you to know I’m praying this passage over you today. That you would be filled to the brim with the knowledge of the greatness of Christ’s love for you and the wholeness and fullness of insight brought by God’s overreaching and abundant presence in your minds. Be kind to yourself. Know your worth. Know you are precious and cherished.
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