GOD’S RICHES IN US

When the Lord takes up residence in us, he brings with him all his power and resources. Suddenly, our inner man has access to God's strength, wisdom, truth, peace, everything we need to live in victory. We don't have to cry out to him to come down to us from heaven. He's already in us. Paul tells us just how powerful we are in Christ.

"For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ…that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God. Now unto him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us" (Ephesians 3:14-20).

What an amazing passage. Paul lists but a few of the incredible treasures the Lord has made available to us. Indeed, all of God's riches are available to us in Christ Jesus.

Some Christians have created an image of a self-centered God whose only pleasure is in receiving praise. May that never be said about our Lord because that isn't at all why he has come to abide in us. He has come to show us that he's a God who is not far off. The Lord wants us to know he isn't just out in the dark expanse of the cosmos somewhere. He's very present in us. He doesn't flit in and out of our lives at will. No, he never leaves his abode in us.

Paul notes, "Now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ" (Ephesians 2:13). The apostle makes it absolutely clear: God is here now, abiding in us. When the Father made his dwelling in our temple, he brought to us a strength in our inner man, a deep rooting and grounding in love, as well as access to ask him for all things. He has made all things possible, through his divine power at work in us (see Ephesians 3:16-21).