Growing up Strong

I pray that out of [the Father’s] 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.
Ephesians 3:16-18

Eat your vegetables! You can probably hear echoes of your mother giving you that advice.
Maybe you have even spoken those words to your own children. It’s important that children
eat the right kinds of foods so that they will be healthy and grow up to be strong. If left to
themselves, children would try to survive on a diet of candy and soda. That might work for a
little while, but such an unhealthy diet would soon make them weak and sick.

Too often, we try to survive on spiritual junk food. The world offers a candy store selection
of ways to make ourselves happy. We feast on vices and vanity and even though the world
promises otherwise, they offer us absolutely no nourishment. With a lot of heart ache, we
find out eventually just how shallow we’ve been and how foolish our spiritual diet has been.

Our heavenly Father ensures that we receive the best nourishment for our souls. Instead of
leaving us to be sin-sick, facing death for our faults and failures, he provides a rich feast of
his love and forgiveness. He feeds our spirits with his Word so that Christ may dwell in our
hearts through faith. He gives us strength through his Holy Spirit so that we might serve him
and bring glory to his name every day. He gives us power and ability to grasp the enormity of
his love for us—his immeasurable great love that saves sinners like us through Jesus and through
faith in our Savior gives us eternal life.

A healthy diet makes your body strong, but even more important than that is the food of
God’s soul-strengthening Word. Feast daily on his Word that fills you full of the great love that
he has for you in Jesus.

Prayer:
Thank you, Lord, for causing me to be strong in your love through the power of
your Word. Continue to build me up in faith and the fullness of Christ’s wondrous
love. Amen.