This, then, is what I pray, kneeling before the Father, from whom every fatherhood, in heaven or on earth, takes its name. In the abundance of his glory may he, through his Spirit, enable you to grow firm in power with regard to your inner self, so that Christ may live in your hearts through faith, and then, planted in love and built on love, with all God’s holy people you will have the strength to grasp the breadth and the length, the height and the depth; so that, knowing the love of Christ, which is beyond knowledge, you may be filled with the utter fullness of God (Ephesians 3:14-19).

What are you filled with?  We are all filled with something, often with many things.  In a beautiful expression of his extravagant provision for us, the Lord wants us to be filled with him, with “the utter fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:19).  He emptied himself (Philippians 2:7), so that we “may have life and have it to the full” (John 10:10).  

All fullness is found in Jesus Christ (Colossians 1:19), who himself is full of grace and truth (John 1:14).  “From his fullness we have, all of us, received—one gift replacing another, for the Law was given through Moses, grace and truth have come through Jesus Christ” (John 1:16-17).  Through him, we receive “the fullness of grace” that leads to eternal life (Romans 5:17, 21), and the wonderful call to make the life-giving Word of God our home.  When we do, we will come to know the truth, and the truth will set us free (John 6:63, 8:31-32, 17:17).

In addition to filling us with the gifts of his grace and truth, the Lord fills us by satisfying our every hunger and thirst with himself.  God fulfills all our needs “out of the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19).  Jesus is the bread of life; no one who comes to him will ever hunger, and no one who believes in him will ever thirst (John 6:35).  As Jesus said, “no one who drinks the water that I shall give will ever be thirsty again” (John 4:14).  “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me!  Let anyone who believes in me come and drink!  As Scripture says, from his heart shall flow streams of living water.  He was speaking of the Spirit which those who believed in him were to receive” (John 7:37-39).  

At all times, but especially if these promises seem far off, we should ask the Lord to fill us with his Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5:18; see also Luke 1:41).  Moreover, we can reflect on, and ask the Lord to fill us with, the fruits of his Spirit—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).  

St. Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3:16-17 can also be a model for our prayer, that God, through the Holy Spirit, may enable us to grow firm in power regarding our inner selves, so that Christ may live in our hearts through faith.  For this to happen, John 3:30 has to become a reality in our lives:  Jesus “must grow greater, I must grow less.”  Whatever we are filled with, if not Jesus, needs to decrease, and he needs to increase within us.  “Do not love the world or what is in the world.  If anyone does love the world, the love of the Father finds no place in him” (1 John 2:15).  Instead, we are to set our hearts on the kingdom of God first, and on his righteousness, and all else that we truly need will be given to us as well (Matthew 6:32-33).  

As St. Paul’s prayer continues, when Jesus is living in our hearts, we can then “grasp the breadth and the length, the height and the depth” of the love of Christ and be “filled with the utter fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:17-19).  We cannot do this on our own; rather, we need God’s grace.  Indeed, St. Paul says that the love of Christ is “beyond knowledge” (Ephesians 3:19).  But God is love (1 John 4:8)!  And in his great love for us, the Holy Spirit pours God’s love into our hearts (Romans 5:5), and his grace fills us with faith and with the love that is in Christ Jesus (1 Timothy 1:14).  Like Simon Peter, we may work hard on our own and catch nothing, but when Jesus is in our “boats,” they will be filled beyond what we could ever imagine (Luke 5:3-7)—with the utter fullness of God!