How Deep His Love Is
“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.” (Ephesians 3:16-18, NLT)
When I was five years old, I thought I knew what love looked like. It looked like daring tales involving glass slippers or enchanted castles; a prince in disguise that swept the beautiful heroine off her feet in all the Disney-saturated technicolor of the late-90s.
When I was seventeen, I thought I had a better idea of what love looked like. It looked like stolen kisses at my locker before first period; nights spent falling asleep with the phone to my cheek, listening to the whisper on the other end of the call and reveling in all the giddiness of feeling like I belonged to someone. I thought it was date nights and grand gestures.
Now, I am twenty-three, and I’m not sure I ever had a clue. I’m also starting to realize that I’m completely okay with that. Because as corny as it sounds, the Lord is absolutely destroying every single opinion I have ever held about love in the most overwhelming pursuit for my heart that I’ve ever experienced. And the more I know of His love, the more I know of myself: my worth, my ability, and my identity.
The most beautiful thing about God’s love is that we can never understand how vast it is. Just when we think we have an idea, He professes yet another level of His overwhelming passion for us. It’s incomprehensible and it chases after us relentlessly. When we don’t want it, it waits. When we wander from it, it searches us out. When we need it, it overwhelms us, and when we ask for it, we find that it is the most genuine love that has ever existed. It could never be counterfeited or imitated by any other force in the universe.
And I don’t know if this is true for anyone else, but it almost feels strange to be pursued this recklessly. The best way I know how to put this experience is the way we see it in Luke 15: 4-7. In this parable, the Lord is a shepherd with a flock of one hundred sheep. Suddenly, He realizes that one of His lambs is missing and leaves the flock of ninety-nine to search for that one. This act baffles me. Why would He hunt through the wilderness in search of one stupid lamb? Why wouldn’t He just say, “Well I have ninety-nine, and I should stay to make sure I don’t lose any more,” leaving that one sheep to figure it out for itself? I certainly would. But that’s because my conception of affection is imperfect compared to God’s flawless love. He goes after the one because our God is a rescuer. He doesn’t let the worth of the multitude undermine the value of the one. He won’t let any of us slip through the cracks or wander in the wilderness. He loves us too much to let us fall away from His grace.
And I am so grateful that He loves us this way. There is no adversary He wouldn’t crush. There is no raging sea He wouldn’t cross. There is no tower He wouldn’t climb to reach me– and you.
So here’s a challenge for you: At some point today, get alone with God. Ask Him to reveal His love for you. Ask Him to meet you right where you are and speak to you. And then, let Him speak. If you need worship music to get you in the mindset, I’m leaving one below that has been completely wrecking my heart over the past few weeks— and you’ll find it goes along perfectly with my devo today. As I sit here writing this, I am praying for you, just like in our key verse. I’m praying that you would start to realize a new dimension of God’s love for you. Let it lay siege to your heart and refresh you. Don’t be afraid to really revel in it. Don’t be too timid to accept it, because as a child of God, you have a right to dive deep into it.
His affections for you don’t have a timestamp. There is no waitlist. It’s always been there for you if you want it. I pray that you would know what it feels like to be so audaciously pursued by Jesus and that you would know more of how endless and all-consuming His love is for you. Give Jesus ten minutes to speak into your heart. Ten minutes to openly pursue you. There is absolutely no length He wouldn’t go to for you to know just how deeply he has fallen in love with you.
