God loves us and wants us to be happy.  This is the great truth that Paul wants his readers to know and take to heart, and he prays that this reality will grip all believers in Christ in the book we know as Ephesians.

He specifically prays that followers of Jesus may have power to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.

I teach a Bible class at a local drug and rehabilitation center in Tlacolula, Mexico, and we studied this passage on Monday.  I suspect that many of them had trouble believing that God could love them when they consider the terrible things that they had done under the influence of drugs and alcohol, the people that they hurt and the relationships that were destroyed.

The apostle Paul could understand these doubts. Before he experienced the incredible love of God, he hated Jesus, wanted to kill his followers and destroy the church. So it didn't make any sense that God could love him. He is right.  It doesn't make sense that God could love any of us. Scripture says that we are all rebels, enemies and sinners against God. That is probably why Paul writes in verse 19 about this love that surpasses knowledge. It is impossible for us to wrap our minds around the fact that God loves us. And not just a little bit.  His love for us is incredibly wide and long.  Unbelievably high and deep. It will take us a lifetime to begin to “grasp” God's great love for us. 

In this passage (3:14-21), Paul mentions the word “power” three times. It is only with the power of God, through the Spirits indwelling of our hearts, that we can appreciate his love for us and be “filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”  

Imagine that, you and me, filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now that should make us happy!
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