L-O-V-E

LOVE. L-O-V-E is a big word. To adequately communicate this deep longing of the soul is nearly beyond our human capacity. Yet we try. Did you know it is estimated that more than 100 million love songs have been recorded over the past many years. Poems have been penned, philosophers have opined, and countless tangible expressions given to convey this cavernous word called love.

To be loved wholly and to give love is the deepest need we have as human beings. Yet this ever- consuming need for love is something that exceeds mortal fulfillment…and human nature tends to seek what it feels to need the most.

Hi! My name is Linette Watson, and I am the women’s ministry director of the Minnesota Church of God and one of the ways I enjoy serving women is to encourage them to rest securely in the powerful love of God. Have you ever asked God to help you grow in your understanding of His love for you? As believers we accepted God’s love when we acknowledged our need for Him and invited Jesus to be Lord of our lives , but sometimes we stop there. Here is what I have found. God invites us to go deeper and deeper in our understanding of His love, because it’s endless. We do not live this Christian life on rationed out portions of God’s love. The fullness of His love is available to us at all times. Just when you think you have reached the bottom of this reservoir, there are deeper levels yet to be discovered. This is an ongoing revelation throughout our lives and this revelation is ever changing US.

Ephesians is perhaps one of my favorite books of the Bible. It’s referred to as the Queen of the Epistles. I revelation of God’s love for us.
Let’s read chapter 3:14-19 When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of Everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from His glorious, unlimited resources He will empower you with inner strength through His Spirit. Then Christ will make His home in your hearts as you trust in Him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep His love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

There are three things that stand out to me powerfully in this passage:
You are founded in His love. AS your roots grow down into God’s love, a firm foundation is poured and this foundation is strong enough to hold you, strong enough to uphold you and strong enough to enfold you from the inside out.

You are formed in His love. God’s Love is your deepest identity. Nothing and no one else have the right any longer to define you. You are now defined by the Divine and this shapes everything about you. You are now defined as one radically beloved by God. “This is the true self. Every other identity is illusion.” (Brennan Manning)
You are full in His love as you continually experience God’s love and seek to grow in your understanding of His love. To be full connotes a longing that is satisfied only through God’s love. All other “loves” are incomplete now and fall short to knowing and experiencing God’s love. The outcome is quite phenomenal. Life is now “an unself-conscious, unpretentious, immersed in life, absorbed in the present moment, breathing in God as naturally as a fish swimming in water.”

Let me return to the first question. Are you growing down deep in God’s love? Are you allowing Him to reveal to you the deepest understanding of His love for you? If you are struggling today in believing He really loves you, or if you doubt His love in any way, the Good News is all you must do is ask for His help to understand. Now, we are not left to our own efforts here. We get to invite the power and the presence of God to unlock this understanding.

May I pray for you the same prayer Paul prayed? “And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep His love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God”. Amen.

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