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GROUNDED IN LOVE

July 28, 2023

[I pray] that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled to all the fullness of God.
Ephesians 3:17-19


1. LOVE IS A POWERFUL FOUNDATION. God wants us to be rooted and grounded in love. Jesus didn’t build His kingdom on force, coercion, or manipulation. He established it on love – the love that God has for us and the love that God has called us to.

2. LOVE FORGIVES. If we have anything against anyone, we forgive (Mark 11:25). Resentment is a trap. When it gets on us, we can get stuck in the toxicity of it and hold unforgiveness toward people and justify it to ourselves, but it will hinder the anointing and harden our hearts. Whatever the offense, we must forgive ourselves and others.

Put on a heart of compassion . . . bearing graciously with one another, and willingly forgiving each other if one has a cause for complaint against another; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so should you forgive. Beyond all these things put on and wrap yourselves in [unselfish] love, which is the perfect bond of unity [for everything is bound together in agreement when each one seeks the best for others]. Colossians 3:12b-14 AMP

3. LOVE IS CONSTANTLY GROWING. Jesus said, “By this all people will know that you are My disciples: if you have love for one another” (John 13:35). I want my love relationship with my wife to increase and abound over the years. I want my love for my kids to mature and develop as we go. The Bible says that in the end times, many people’s love will grow cold (Matthew 24:12). So, this is an opportunity for the church to do the opposite and to increase in love. The Lord is rallying us back to the essentials, so the expression of our lives and our engagement with the lost is full of love.

DAILY CONFESSION
I bear graciously with people and willingly forgive, just as the Lord has forgiven me. Beyond all these things, I put on and wrap myself in unselfish love, which is the perfect bond of unity. I let the peace of Christ be the controlling factor in my heart, deciding and settling questions that arise (Based on Colossians 3:13-15 AMP).

ground·ed, adj.
1. To lay the foundation, to found.
2. To make stable, establish.

Copyright © 2023 St. Louis Family Church, All rights reserved. No part of this article may be reprinted or distributed in any form without prior written permission of St. Louis Family Church. Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are from the New American Standard Bible (NASB) Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved. “Grounded.” Strong’s Concordance, QuotesCosmos, https://www.quotescosmos.com/bible/bible-concordance/G2311.html. Accessed 27 Jul. 2023.