Bigger Than You Imagine

Saturday February 14, 2015

God loves us. Most of us know this. But how many of us feel it? Paul knew that understanding God´s love was a difficult proposition. He believed supernatural revelation was required even to get started (Ephesians 3:16, 18). God´s love is so large and our comprehension so small. How can we ever truly understand His love for us?

Part of our problem is that we interpret God´s love through the lens of human love. If we understand God´s love to be anything like the distorted, damaging "love" we´ve experienced from an abuser, or even the relatively good love of family and friends (at best limited, at worst tainted by wrong motives), we´ll forever feel cold about God´s love for us.

But there´s another way. Through the help of the Holy Spirit we can begin to grasp God´s love not by likeness to, but in contrast to, human love. Try this exercise : think of the most loving thing someone has done for you. Even as great as their act of love was, it´s tiny in contrast to God´s love for you. How tiny? Picture a grain of sand sitting next to a skyscraper. Picture a microbe next to Jupiter. Picture the tiniest trickle alongside the mightiest of rivers, or a strand of cotton next to a mile of fabric. Imagine the faintest scent against the strongest perfume, the quietest chirp against the loudest of thunderclaps. Compare a water drop to the Pacific Ocean, the flicker of a candle to the blaze of the sun, a single leaf to a forest of trees. That´s how tiny human love is, and how great God´s love is!

The truth is that God´s love can never be fully grasped, which means that all contrasts fall short! (v.19). It´s bigger than you could ever imagine. - Sheridan Voysey

Read
Ephesians 3:14-21
For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge - that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever! Amen.

Psalms 36:5
Your love, O Lord, reaches to the heavens, 
your faithfulness to the skies.

Question to Ponder
Do you struggle to feel God´s love for you personally?
What comparison can you think of to grasp God´s love for you?

**Article taken from ODJ (Our Daily Journey with God) Dec 2014 - Feb 2015 issue