Rooted and Established

We are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. The stain of sin is washed away. The penalty of death is defeated. And the fullness of God is open to us. His Spirit builds us up, that we may know and understand, that we may have continual fellowship with Christ, that we may see past the world to the glory of the Kingdom. And the Word narrates our days and translates and interprets our steps. And our vision of what lies ahead can be seen and known through Christ. Fear is not the factor of our hearts, of our lives. We have been made strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. We have been planted and rooted and established. We have been taken upward to victory, where Christ stands. Our transgressions died on the cross, so that our lives could be forever with Christ. By His sacrifice we are saved and sanctified. And by His love we are lifted above the darkness, above the noise, above the lies and deceit and discouragement and guilt and shame. God has taken us to His bosom, to His heart, to His present and eternal love. We believe the love; we believe the mercy; we believe the forgiveness; we believe the grace. We believe the Son of God, the Lamb of God, the Prince of Peace, the only Lord and Savior, who takes away the sins of the world. We believe the heavenly Father who loves us so very much, that He reaches out to every one of us. That is what we know and experience and believe and live.

For this reason, I kneel before the Father, from whom His whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. 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 saints, 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 3:14-19