This is the last post this month on the love of God. Today’s Bible Journaling comes from Ephesians 3:19, “and to know Christ’s love that surpasses knowledge so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”(CSB) The New King James Version says, “to know the love of Christ which passes all knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
To know the love of God we must experience His love toward us. We need to receive the love He offers to us, and not just receive it, but desire to experience the height, depth, and vastness of His love toward us. In order to do that requires a relationship. If I didn’t get to know my husband, his idiosyncrasies, his likes, his dislikes, the very heart of who he is, I would never experience the love he has for me, there would be no relationship. I would know about him, but not know him. The same is true about our relationship with Jesus.
Many people know about Him, but they don’t know Him. So, how do we go about knowing Jesus? The first step is to accept Him as our Lord and Savior, to allow Him complete control over our lives, and be the Master of our lives. We must confess our sins, ask for His forgiveness, and determine in our hearts to live for Him, living in a manner pleasing to Him. Then we must get to know who He is. This comes about by studying His Word, the Bible. The Bible is His love letter to us, it tells us of His love for us, it gives us instruction on how to live, and encouragement for walking by faith. He tells us Who He is and tells us of His love for us. His personality shows forth in His Word, it tells us of His attributes, it tells us how important we are to Him.
As mere human beings we can not begin to understand the vastness of His love for us. In Ephesians 3:18, the Apostle Paul tells the Ephesians, “I pray that you, being rooted and firmly established in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saint what is the length and width, height and depth of God’s love.” (CSB) God loves us so much that Jesus willingly gave up His life on the cross for our sins. John 15:13 says, “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” Jesus calls us friends and brothers, we are His own, and He loves us to death! His death! We must receive His sacrificial death on the cross and accept His love for us to begin to experience a relationship with Him.
I for one, cannot even imagine having that kind of love, to lay down my life for another! It is beyond comprehension. But the more I dig into His Word and learn more about His love for me, the stronger my relationship with Him becomes. The more I learn, the more my heart is overwhelmed with how much He loves me, and I want to receive more of His love daily! His desire for me is to take the love He gives me and share it with others. We are to show the same attributes of love to a lost and dying world. It is the love we have for others that draws them to the foot of the cross.
I hope that you experience the love of God to the fullest. You will find that when you think He couldn’t love you any more, His love surpasses how much you know He loves you!
donnasmusings 