Reading: “That ye might be filled with all the fullness of God.”— Ephesians 3:19 

Previously, we learned what we are by nature and also what we are in Christ. Let us move on and learn what we can yet be in Christ.

The prayer in Ephesians 3:19 literally reads, “that ye might be filled unto all the fullness of God. A. W. Pink states that “the preposition unto suggests the idea of a continuous process, a progressive and enlarging experience. This is no unattainable zeal, but the great goal which is to be realized in union with Christ, through whom alone the divine fullness can be communicated to the sons of men.”

Absolute perfection is the standard to which the believer is to attain. He is predestinated to be conformed to the image of the Son of God. Another writer (Hodge) said that man is “to be perfect as man, as God is perfect as God; and the perfection of man consists in his being full of God; God is dwelling in him so as absolutely to control all his cognitions, feelings, and outward actions. This therefore means that even when he is eventually filled with all the fullness of God, man does not become divine but remains a creature whose glory consists in eternally reflecting the glory of His Creator.”

What does this mean for us as we pray? First, there is much of God’s fullness that we can and must be filled with. Second, we must pray for this fullness. Third, the Lord does not teach us to pray for that which He will not grant. Let us pray to be more like Him and then use the means He has given to accomplish that.

“Use thy duties, as Noah’s dove did her wings, to carry thee to the ark of the Lord Jesus Christ, where only there is rest.”—Isaac Ambrose