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“Seven Steps to the Fullness of God“

1. Therefore I bow my knees before the righteous Father

Kneeling, doffing one’s hat, submitting—that seems to have gone out of fashion. Many received an anti-authoritarian upbringing; they are self-confident and view their neighbours, including their father and mother, very critically. Therefore, quite a few come to the conclusion that there is no one to whom they must submit. Only when it is unavoidable, for example, with superiors or in the military, do they do so under duress. But if one has beloved parents, one will follow them willingly and wholeheartedly. If we want to experience what a just father is, we must look to God. He cares for us; gives us commandments whose observance is helpful to us; He “braces us” or lets us feel the consequences of our own actions when necessary.  He does everything to ensure that we remain His children, His heirs. When we gain such knowledge, we will bend our knees before His wisdom, omnipotence, power, and greatness.

2. Power according to the riches of His glory

The world belongs to the strong – God’s world belongs to the weak, who become strong through faith! These are sometimes inconspicuous, physically frail people on the margins of society. There are numerous examples of this. God has countless ways of giving us strength. We receive strength from the knowledge of His guidance, His support in all situations, the community of believers, His creation, through prayer, worship, the Holy Scriptures, and much more.

3. Becoming strong in the inner man through His Spirit

Physical strength can be trained. Strength in the inner self is always a gift, a grace. But we can ask our Heavenly Father for it for ourselves and our neighbours. But do we really want to do that seriously? What are we praying for? It is God’s Spirit who creates it. The sender is there! Is the receiver attuned to it?

4. That Christ may dwell in your hearts and that you may be rooted and grounded in love

This is the true strength of Christians: that Christ dwells in their hearts. We teach this even to small children in the night prayer: “…no one should dwell there but Jesus alone.” If this is so, His love will rule us, and our works will be a living sign of His love. Nothing can suppress this love! But what and who dwells in our hearts? Aren’t we to find the need for recognition, unbelief, greed, envy, doubt, lies, and much more? This dampens the work of Jesus and prevents us from recognizing the works of God. But God wants us to understand.

5. What is the breadth and length and height and depth

This statement makes us sit up and take notice. Aren’t there only three dimensions of space? But let’s consider it spiritually. The three dimensions of length, width, and height determine the space of our sphere of activity on Earth.  We are placed in a specific place and are meant to fulfill our mission. We can only guess at what depth means. Depth belongs to the world. It permeates everything in space and time. We speak of understanding something in its entirety, of diving deeply, but also of the profound fall. The deepest fall came through human sin in this world! And not a few sink into the depths of guilt in their lives through strife, selfishness, hatred, etc. But the fourth dimension belongs to God alone. He has the power to pull us out, to lift us up. That is why the cross was erected. Jesus, the Savior, who leads us from the depths, from the realm of our humanity, to heaven!

6. Know the love of Christ, which surpasses knowledge

When I experience and recognize love, I don’t need laws and regulations just to do the right thing. When I recognize love and pass it on with all my strength, it leads me to true divine knowledge.

7. That you may be filled with all the fullness of God

If we take the aforementioned steps of faith and make them an integral part of our lives, we will attain God’s fullness, step by step. If we realize that we lack this fullness, it helps to tirelessly search for the causes through prayer and heartfelt contemplation. This is how our lives become beautiful, worth living, and truly fulfilling!

The conclusion: We have every reason to join in Apostle Pauls concluding verse:

“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, unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus through all ages, world without end. Amen.”