Fullness of God

The Spirit Who Gives Life and Strength

 Filled with the Fullness of God

Reading: Psalm 104; Ephesians 3:14–21

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you 

with power through his Spirit in your inner being.

Ephesians 3:16

Psalm 104 is a great hymn of creation. It celebrates the God who clothes Himself with light, stretches out the heavens, waters the earth, feeds every creature, and renews the face of the ground. Everything lives because God gives breath. The psalmist says, “When you send your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground” (Psalm 104:30). The Spirit is not distant or abstract. He is the life-giving presence of God, sustaining creation and renewing what has grown weary.

Hildegard of Bingen beautifully expressed this truth: “God is within all things and beyond all things.” God is beyond creation in majesty, yet present within creation by His sustaining life. He is not trapped within the world, but neither is He absent from it. Hildegard also described humanity as being “showered with the gentle raindrops of the Holy Spirit.” The Spirit comes not only as wind and fire, but also as gentle rain upon the soul—refreshing dry hearts, nourishing weary lives, and bringing renewal where there has been barrenness.

In Ephesians 3, Paul turns from creation to the inner life of the believer. He kneels in prayer and asks that we may be strengthened “through his Spirit” in our inner being. The same Spirit who renews the earth also renews the human heart. Eugene Peterson reminds us that prayer is attentiveness to God—not merely knowing about Him, but becoming personally responsive to His presence. Prayer joins what we know of God to a living relationship with God. Paul’s prayer rises higher still: that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith, and that we may be rooted and established in love. The Spirit deepens our roots in God’s love until we begin to grasp how wide, long, high, and deep the love of Christ truly is. The Spirit renews creation, strengthens the soul, and fills the believer with the love and presence of Christ. God is beyond us in glory, around us in creation, and within us by His Spirit.

Prayer:
 Lord, shower our lives with Your gentle renewing grace. Strengthen us in our inner being, make Christ at home in our hearts, and root us deeply in His love. Renew our hearts as You renew the earth, and fill us with the fullness of God, for the glory of Jesus. Amen.