God's Grace is like a lottery ticket . You need to claim it.

The Apostle Paul is sharing a new dimension to his life -- his narrow reality of what the possibilities are (see reading below).  He is telling those who are listening that they would be wise to unlock the doors of their hearts and their minds and take in the marvelous truth of Christ’s love that is there -- present -- for all who are willing to take the time to explore the truth of God through Jesus.

It is sooooooo true that God’s grace, mercy, forgiveness and love are ours for the receiving!  To actually experience the depth, length, heights -- the total dimension -- is our for the taking.  We can be satisfied with the status quo -- just knowing the stories -- just believing the possibilities are present.  That God is present. We can just live in the knowledge of all of that!  But, it would be like knowing that you’ve won the lottery but never claiming the prize.

God offers us a glorious inner strength breathed into us by the very breath of God’s Spirit  to penetrate the very fiber and tissue of our beings. 

Why would we not want to explore -- research -- its total possibilities?

4 As you read over what I have written to you, you'll be able to see for yourselves into the mystery of Christ. 5 None of our ancestors understood this.... 7 This is my life work: helping people understand and respond to this Message. It came as a sheer gift to me, a real surprise, God handling all the details. 8 When it came to presenting the Message to people who had no background in God's way, I was the least qualified of any of the available Christians. God saw to it that I was equipped, but you can be sure that it had nothing to do with my natural abilities.  9 My task is to bring out in the open and make plain what God, who created all this in the first place, has been doing in secret and behind the scenes all along. 10 Through Christians like yourselves gathered in churches,..... God can do anything, you know - far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us.  (Eph. 3:4-13 The Message)