My
time with God this morning began with this Scripture: “For God is my witness, how I yearn for you
all with the affection of Christ Jesus.”[1]Paul was in prison. He missed this church family. They were
concerned for him, and wanted to know how he was doing. His reply was that he
felt a yearning in his heart for all his brothers in that city, feeling for
them the affection of Christ Jesus.
The question that immediately arose
was, how in the world do we come to have “the
affection of Christ Jesus”? Not only that, how do people have the affection
of Christ Jesus for others when they aren’t sure they have ever felt Jesus’
affection for themselves?
I know that a lot of church-going folk
struggle to believe God loves them at all. There are so many times when the
inner ugliness of soul rises up with the blatant and belligerent claim that
there is such inner worthlessness that not even God Almighty could love such a
worm. People struggle to rise up to the sound doctrine of God as the God of
love,[2] of God so loving the world,[3] and of God loving his children.[4]
But to consider that the word “affection” would have anything to do
with relationship with God, and that Jesus himself would have something akin to
affection towards people like ourselves? How could such a thing be?
At least part of the answer comes in
what we have considered of Paul’s prayer for the church over the last few
weeks. Our need to know and share the affection of Christ is met by praying for
what is missing in our lives. What it comes down to is praying something like this:[5]
Heavenly Father, I bow before you, the Father of the whole church family in heaven and on earth, and I pray for myself, and any of my brothers, who struggle to know the affection of Jesus Christ our Lord.
I pray that, according to the riches of your glory, you would grant us to be strengthened with power through your Holy Spirit in our inner beings, so that Jesus Christ would dwell in our hearts through faith, and that we would feel the affection of our Lord Jesus Christ in our hearts.
I pray that, as we are rooted and grounded in love more than we have ever experienced or known, that you would give all of us the strength to comprehend what is the breadth and length and height and depth of the affections of Jesus Christ, and to know the affections of Christ that surpass anything we could ever understand.
I pray, Father, that as the Holy Spirit fills our inner beings, and Jesus dwells in our hearts through faith, that our growing comprehension and experience of the affections of Jesus Christ would fill us with all the fullness of God. Grant that we could know the fullness of your affections for us, so we can also show the fullness of Jesus’ affections to one another in brotherly love.
Heavenly Father, I know that you are able to do far more abundantly than all that I could pray, and all that I could think to pray. I know that your answer to my prayer will be according to the power of God that is at work within me, and within your church, not the limitations of our comprehension or experience.
I pray that you would do such a work of bringing us into the affections of Jesus Christ that you would receive glory in us, and in your Son, throughout this present generation of children who struggle to know and share your affection, throughout whatever generations remain, and throughout the eternal ages. Glorify your name by filling us to overflowing with the affections of Jesus Christ our Lord, I pray in Jesus’ name!
© 2015 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517,
Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted,
Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English
Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good
News Publishers.)
[1]
Philippians 1:8
[2]
I John 4:7-8
[3]
John 3:16
[4]
Ephesians 5:1-2
[5]
Click on this Scripture link to read Paul’s prayer: Ephesians 3:14-21
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