Pacific Ocean. Nile River. Mount Everest. Mariana trench. Even the widest, longest, highest and deepest things I can think of have limits. Their Creator determined their boundaries in His perfect wisdom, and when we, in our finite humanity, approach these large demonstrations of His power, our own size not only becomes apparent, but we find a sense of awe we may have forgotten was wired in us. So, imagine my delight when the Spirit brought me this beautiful reminder in Ephesians 3: "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." (v.17b-19) Readers, the love of our God has breadth, length, height and depth...or does it? I know Paul was just using a metaphor trying to encapsulate the infinite into something comprehensible for us, but let me just share what the size of His love means to me. The fact that His love has breadth means that He has loved me widely. It is so vast that it covers all of my sin (Seriously, stop reading this and check out Micah 7:18-19). His love is able to be present in all circumstances and situations in which I find myself. No, it is not narrow and limited in what it can extend to. When I stand on the shores of the Pacific, I can only see so far, but I know from seeing other images that have a higher perspective, it goes far beyond that. HOW. MUCH. MORE. does the love of my God have breadth? Just imagine how vast it must be! As the Lord was expanding my understanding, something about the word "broad" triggered a file on the hard drive of my heart. Ah yes, Psalm 18, one I had hidden and saved several years ago held a treasure: "He brought me out into a broad place; he rescued me, because he delighted in me" (v. 19). The spacious location he took me to was HIS LOVE. Let that sink in. That big open field you just pictured, that place full of freedom and unrestrained joy is HIS LOVE. Vast and boundless indeed. It would be enough that His love for me has breadth, but it also has length. I love the comparison to the Nile River, that it "happens" to be the longest in the world, the one that once was filled with blood proving God's power as superior over creation then; even as we saw how long His love for us when He shed His blood at the cross. His love was around before I knew Him, is longer than I can perceive even in this moment, and will endure far beyond Time. "Now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love." 1 Corinthians 13: 13 It is described as steadfast 191 times in the Bible which is rather significant. We can't forget His Word is a hammer, used in its original context to "break the rocks [false prophets] in pieces," (Jeremiah 23:29) but maybe also to make sure we get truths like this one in our heart's heads. His love is STEADFAST. His love is STEADFAST. His love is STEADFAST. Maybe if I repeated that 191 times a day I would remember how long it is. His love has every right to have height. It has the greatest of dignity due to its superiority over all other loves. It is elevated above all the false ones because it was willing to go to the lowest of places, the earth. He was so kind to look down from his holy height and see us. (Psalm 102:19) Love was willing to show how high He really is by this: "Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. THEREFORE God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name." Philippians 2:6-9, emphasis mine There it was again. That internal bell dinging that I have seen height associated somewhere with His love. Do you know it? "nor height nor depth nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:39 No matter how high I try to climb, I cannot ascend beyond His love for me! That verse segues us beautifully into the last measurement: depth. We already know from Romans 11:33 that His riches and wisdom and knowledge are deep, but we learn from our Ephesians verse that His love is too. We also know that the Spirit is the One who searches the deep things of God (1 Cor. 2:10) AND that He produces fruit in us that tastes like love. How sweet that we can be strengthened to understand His love to even greater depths, far deeper than that of the Mariana Trench and not be crushed under the weight of His love! Wow. That's a lot of love. A whole lot to process and digest, at least it has been for me. The more I fathom that this Love is for me, the more unworthy I feel even while embracing the fullness that comes with this knowledge. Reader, His love is oh-so-much bigger than you can possible measure, and He aims it at you. You are not strong enough to hold it back, and it WILL crush your fears if you let it. THANK JESUS.
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The word "lovely" has been dripping from my lips a lot lately. Maybe it is all the residing I have been doing in Ephesians a place where abundance and lavishness echo around every corner, resounding in the halls of my heart and mind. I find myself searching for more accurate words to describe the kind of Love I am coming to know more intimately. And do you know what He is showing me? His Love is far more...sparkly than I really knew. It catches the Light of the Son and twinkles like the dancing reflection of a campfire in a pair of smiling eyes. Yes, something about the beauty of His Love can cause these ol' blues of mine to well up with tears of affection, knowing that He set His on me. He makes me feel special and chosen in a way that no one else can. Maybe because His affection was not just one of His heart, but of His mind and even the human body He took on. I am finding that when the brilliant confetti of His Love pops open in these new ways, a smile spreads across not only my face, but my heart too. The supernatural comprehension of His big love radiates right back to the One who alone receives the glory. To be exquisite Love, there must be a seeking after with care, which is what He very definitely did at the cross. It is also what Jeremiah 29:13, Matthew 6:33 and 1 Chronicles 16:11 are talking about. This kind of superior and distinct Love describes that of my God and that He would let me know it is truly a fact and reality I cherish. And it is from this position that I have realized that I am His channel. He created me with all of these tools (i.e. skills, talents, gifts, what have you) at the onset which He has been developing to use in His own ways to accomplish His purposes. So, when He has a demonstration of His love that must be showcased, He takes the tools He needs off the shelf of my (prayerfully) willing heart and GETS. THINGS. DONE. So, it becomes a rich blessing to get to watch Him work in and through me for His good pleasure. And there is this bonus of joy that bubbles up and over as a result of being the one He is using. His Love for you is exquisite too, reader. And I bet you didn't know this, but I have prayed for you, that even today, He might remind you of this truth. His love for you is perfect, not a single flaw in the way it sparkles even if His love feels distant right now. He knows exactly what He is doing as He shows you His Love. Stop being consumed with solving and striving after the short-lived; rather seek after Love that has tenderly sought after you. Here we go. Another year, another word. It has been somewhere in the ballpark of 7ish years since I started doing WOTYs (Word Of The Year) and admittedly some are more successful than others. Some merit blogging, others have crushed me beyond the ability to formulate proper sentence structure and syntax. That I have requirements, filters and standards for what I write is probably pretty standard. I don't read or follow a lot of other blogs, but I can make the assumption, based on human existence and experience, that all who dare to organize and share their thoughts have some version of expectation for themselves, however different from my own those may be. Having these stipulations for myself is not limited only to blogging, but to nearly all of my WOTYs in the past. I wanted the word to be cool and unique somehow, even prompting conversation such as my "Eureka" year. So, when the Lord led me to select "Love," I frowned back at him with prideful disapproval. Clearly, I need this word more than I know. During one of my pre-WOTY days, I remember working my way through 1 Corinthians 13, focusing on a different aspect of love each month, and He did work some significant changes in my heart and life as a result. So, I was hesitant to repeat that word. But you fellow faith-walkers get it when I say that He was persistent in His pressing. In His kindness, He revealed that this was not so much about showing love to others, though that will be a supernaturally inevitable by-product of His Spirit's work in me, as it was about "[having] strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and [knowing] the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that [I] may be filled with all the fullness of God" (Ephesians 3:18-19). He exposed insecurity and approval-seeking tendencies, revealing that I do have a desire to fully known, and fully satisfied in Him, all the while reiterating that His love is steadfast and unchanging. No wonder He says that comprehending His love requires strength. His love is BIG. So much to unpack and explore this year even as I learn to celebrate that He Himself is Love. I look forward to stepping out onto this vast Ocean and to being further rooted and grounded in that Soil. |
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