It’s kind of a funny thing to say, if you think about it. You know, you have eaten way more than you should have . . . you passed the daily recommended portion about two portions ago . . . and then you sit back, undo the button on your pants, and exclaim with a sigh, “I’m stuffed!” You know the feeling . . . you’ve packed it in . . . no more room left . . . one more bite and you’re going to burst. This morning, something I read in Ephesians, has me thinking not of eating but of being maxed out . . . topped up . . . at capacity . . . or, as Paul says, “filled with all the fullness.”

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of His glory He may grant you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith–that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.    (Ephesians 3:14-17 ESV)

Paul’s prayer for the saints was that they would be “filled with all the fullness of God.” Hmmm. Really? What does that even mean? Big, big, big God poured into puny people. Feeble, weak, “like the grass” creation jam packed with the abundance of the Creator of immeasurable power (Eph. 1:19) and who dwells in unapproachable light (1Tim. 6:16). Kind of hurts the brain a bit to think of what it means “in real life” to be filled with fullness of God. But if it weren’t possible . . . the God-breathed word of God wouldn’t say it was.

Whatever it is it is “according to the riches of His grace” . . . that’s a lot! It happens as we are strengthened by the Spirit of God and as the Son of God dwells in our hearts. The pump of this overflowing fullness is primed by being rooted and grounded in the love of Christ . . . and in pursuing the comprehension of the dimensions of this love which “surpasses knowledge.” And as we seek to know . . . as we hunger and thirst to understand . . . as we cry out for the Spirit to reveal and illuminate . . . as we invite Jesus to abide with us, Him in whom “the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily” (Col. 2:9) . . . the word says we’ll get stuffed! . . . filled with the fullness of God.

I think it’s akin to what Peter refers to as partaking in the divine nature (2Pet. 1:4). Barnes says it means, “that you may have the richest measures of Divine consolation and of the Divine Presence; that you may partake of the entire enjoyment of God in the most ample measure in which he bestows his favors on his people.”

And if the child of God can really be filled with the fullness of God, then you got to think “there’s no room left for dessert.” As I’m filled with the fullness of God won’t self be displaced . . . as I overflow with the love of God, doesn’t that mean there’s no room left for hatred or bitterness . . . as the righteousness of Christ permeates every corner of my being, won’t that mean that the old nature has less and less to feed on . . . as He increases, don’t I decrease?

Filled with the fullness of God . . . a phrase so easy to read . . . so easy to just skim over . . . but just pause a moment and noodle on it . . . it overflows my cognitive capability . . . it wells up within my heart a worship response . . .

One of my favorite phrases from a Josh Wilson song is “it’s like trying to put the ocean in a cup.” That’s what I imagine being filled with the fullness of God to be like . . . great, big ocean poured into a teensy-weensy cup. But to quote another song writer, “Fill my cup, Lord!”

That I would be stuffed . . . that I would be filled with the fullness of God . . . for His glory . . . amen.