The Importance of Understanding God's love

Paul writes Ephesians 3: 17b-19: in verses 17b-19: I pray that you being rooted and established in love, may have the 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 the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God (NIV). But why does Paul say that Christians need to be rooted in God’s love and grasp it? He could just as well prayed for them to be rooted and established in God. The fact is nothing is more stabilizing, more securing and encouraging and life giving than the experience of love.  Child Psychologists have diagnosed many children with Attachment Disorder. Some of the things that cause Attachment Disorder are unwanted pregnancy, abuse and neglect. Nancy L. Thomas in her book When Love is Not Enough writes, “Babies do know what the mother is feeling and thinking during pregnancy.” As a result in the case of an unwanted pregnancy a baby can feel what the mom is feeling, that it is not wanted. On top of it if there is abuse and neglect later on the child end up suffering from Attachment Disorder. Children with Attachment Disorder grow up with the need to be in control, without the ability to trust, and lack of ability to care from their heart, because caring takes trusting among other things. As a result they become destructive towards themselves, towards other children and towards their pets. And it all originates from this experience of not being wanted, of being abused and neglected. In essence it all originates from their experience of not being loved.

Therefore, just as having a mom is not enough, but being rooted and established in a mom’s nourishing love is important for the child to grow up into a healthy human being, similarly it is not enough for Christians to have a God, they need to experience the love of God, they need to be rooted and established in God’s love in order to grow up healthy in their Christian life and faith. God’s love is as character forming for Christians as a mother’s love for a child.