I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, 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. (Eph. 3:17-19 NIV)

My family enjoys vacationing at a remote cabin. As we prepare to vacate the cabin for winter, we drain all the plumbing. We open valves, releasing all the water to keep pipes from bursting in the coming freeze.

In the springtime, we reverse the process, closing valves and turning back on the water. But, there is one valve we leave open until new water fills the system: the valve at the top of the hot-water tank.

We allow the incoming water to drive out the air in the tank that would otherwise keep it from fulfilling its purpose.

Similarly, when love for Christ fills our hearts, it drives out the love for sin that is the air in which temptations thrive. What fills our hearts with such love for Christ? Grasping how wide and long and high and deep is his love for us.

Prayer: Father, help me to grasp the greatness of Christ’s love for me so that I will be filled with the love for him that is power for resisting sin.