02/27/2020
The love of Christ, we can only think we know it. When we are saved, and first feel it rushing into us with such an amazing force, we are convinced that this torrential flood must be the fullness of His love, but as we grow in faith we realize that the waters slow, and the river deepens. We then get a sense of the fact that there are seas, and oceans, ahead... and we are overcome by the expanse that is His love for us, and the journey ahead.
“and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
Ephesians 3:19 ESV
In this way, having experienced the love of Jesus, we are then filled with the fullness of God. The love inside us, that We now realize surpasses all knowledge, suddenly comes to rest in the cupped hands of someone far greater, and this is also beyond our ability to comprehend... the fullness, and peace of God.
“And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 4:7 ESV
We have been placed in the midst of a wonder surrounded by wonder, a mystery within a mystery, and awesomeness wrapped in awe. This is our first step in knowing Jesus... this is the beginning of our journey of faith, and this is the first taste of what awaits us.
“Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.”
Colossians 2:6-7 ESV
When my first child was born I held her in my arms and thought to myself that I couldn’t love anything more than I loved my wife, and this child at this moment. My eyes couldn’t get enough of them, and as I watched my daughter at her mother’s breast I thanked God for the love He had given me. But this was just a drop of water in the sea He had prepared before me; she grew, more children came, and love blossomed in me, and in my house. Our faith is like this, we are given it as if it were being poured into us like a vessel, and as each moment passes we realize the flow doesn’t end, nor does it show any sign of ending.
So, as it was in the first moments we believed, so it is now; we experience the love of Christ and think we know it. In our hearts and minds we are convinced that our vessel is full, and yet His love continues to be poured into us, while the cupped hands of God never lose their grip, nor fail to give us comfort in His peace.
“Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.”
1 Corinthians 13:7-8 ESV
So we rise each morning to the same two questions... have I now come to know the full love of Christ, and have I experienced the complete peace of God? We try to imagine anything in love, or peace, that we are lacking, or that we could possibly be given... then we hear the sound of tiny feet, and our grandchild runs to us, hugs our neck and says “I love you...”
Prayer:
Father, thank you for the love of Christ, and your peace that is poured into me each day. Thank you for the hard times that accentuate the goodness that abounds in our relationship, and in my life. Help me Lord to grow in you this day, and every day to come. Never let me become full to my brim with your bountiful gifts of love and peace, but make me bottomless, and able to contain all that you have for me. Let not a drop be wasted. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you my God who loves, and comforts without end, and beyond my understanding. Merciful are you who gave His only Begotten Son that I might be redeemed from sin, and filled with His perfect love. Awesome are you who comforts me in the midst of life’s great tragedies, and travails. Praised be your name now and forevermore as you pour yourself into me, and speak to me of your will for my life. All glory is yours Father, for without the love of Jesus, your Grace, which flows through Him, and the peace you give me... I would be lost. You are the focus of my being, the awe that quickens me, and the unending hope I have in spending eternity in love, and peace... Most Merciful God, and Loving Christ, abide in me always.
“In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him."”
John 14:20-21 ESV
Rich Forbes