How Big is God’s Love?

I’m convinced most of us don’t have a clue how much God loves us. Paul must have thought so also, for he says,

“I pray that you… may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and high and long 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.” Ephesians 3: 18-19

I love to ponder words, so I pondered the word grasp, and looked it up in the dictionary. To me it conveys the idea of understanding. If I truly grasp (comprehend, hold on to) something it affects my everyday beliefs, my operating system, my worldview, my self- view, my actions, my words,

What about the word know? In this verse it means to experientially know, which it totally different than just knowledge stuck in my head without understanding how it can impact my life. Again it comes back to my everyday actions, words, and even thoughts. When I know something by experience it WILL affect what I think and do.

Continuing on with that idea…Paul says this love is too big to understand with our heads. The only way we can understand it is by experience. In my last post I mentioned my friend coming over to pray with me in regard to fear. I experienced the love of God when He responded so quickly to my cry for help without me telling anyone but Him.

If I handed you a sticky note and asked you to write, “I know I am loved when…” what would you put?

when someone really listens to me?
when I feel understood?
when someone cares that I am hurting?
when someone likes to visit with me?

OK. Hold that thought. Now picture a large circle on the wall showing these four compass points: The highest mountain in the world, the deepest ocean in the world, Hawaii, and England. These are to represent the highest, deepest, widest and longest earthly points I can think of.

Now mentally put your sticky note somewhere in or on the circle to represent how big you believe God’s love to be. Toward the center is smaller, toward the outside is larger. Got it? I am going to assume many stickies are toward the outside. Wish we were doing this in person, but hopefully you are tracking with me.

Now think with me. If…then. If we truly believed God’s love is as big as He says it is, then we would also believe:

We are important to God.
God likes to visit with us.
God cherishes us.
He cares when we are hurting.
We are worthwhile.
He listens to us.

Plug in whatever it is that makes you feel loved and follow the logic. If we don’t grasp how big God’s love is and know it by experience, we will not believe these other things.

I am convinced that if we grasped how big God’s love is we would live abundant, victorious lives. No matter what tough circumstances came our way, we would walk through them with confidence and peace.

So, how do we get to that place of knowing and grasping? Good question. Let’s explore it in my next post.

PS. The picture above? To me it was a good visual of the little bit of God’s love we see compared to the whole island. But really, His love is even bigger than the ocean it’s floating in.