I know I should be on ephesians 4, but I wanted to finish chapter 3 first.
Vs. 16 "He would grant you" describes how everything we get from God is undeserved and is a complete and utter blessing from him. Something that I often forget and take advantage of and take for granted. Right after those words he says "according to the riches of His glory." What a sweet way of describing God, his greatness, Paul used it earlier and I love it every time.
I could continue picking apart the verses simply and saying why I like them....but I wont. The thing I really took from these finishing verses in chapter 3 was the idea of God's love and power. Verse 19 says that his love surpasses knowledge. Which does'nt seem possible. I believe it, but it takes great faith. I sometimes wonder why I do not feel that great love all the time, I know that it is not God, its on me. The reason that I do not respect and recognize his love is my fault. How do I go about trying to understand, identify, feel and most importantly SHOW his great love.
I know when my parents for example show me love, I feel it. God's I think is more difficult....I think it can be tangible and not. Tangible in the sense that love from my parents is essentially from God. Or the random hug that I get from a friend is exactly what I need, a blessing from God. Or simply looking at the beauty of his creation that surrounds me, it shows how he gave me beauty to admire and have, his creation, made out of his love.
Do you think that his love can be not tangible. It sits at the door step to our heart and is not tangible, but when accepted it becomes an overwhelming love(hence tangible). Although I guess if I can not stand some one and they try to love me, but my heart is so hard towards them, I will not feel that love. Mainly because I wont allow it. I would assume that God's love is very similiar, of course I can not comprehend it, but I think that example makes sense. The problem I take from here is I desire God's love and want to understand it. I am not ignoring it at all, so why dont I always feel it. Or am I too conditioned by my own ignorance to realize that I have temporarily shut God out?
Now for my remedy.....prayer? Today we are fasting and are in prayer for the youth group. I am definately going to pray that I begin to understand his love, feel his love, and pour his love into others. I need to listen to the Spirit and I know that all things are possible, including accepting his love.
Graham
p.s. Or maybe, I am so caught up in the "touchy, feely" aspect of faith.....I dont know guys. haha. I am confused.
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3 comments:
I struggle with feeling or experiencing God's love too because I don't always experience it. For me, I think it is because I don't deserve to be loved (which I don't because I am rebellious) but that translates to feeling unloveable which is not true! I think we've bought into the false idea that we need to always be beating ourselves us as unworthy and dirty and shameful. That discredits God's love and his work of making us lovely and clean. You mentioned creation - that often reminds me of God's love: I was not an afterthought. God created everything with great care and incredible attention to detail to be the best environment possible to sustain my life and to give me incredible enjoyment of what he created. This was for me! That's love!
Oh yeah! I found the song. It's called "Come Before"
I wrestle with this too, and often end up as Jeremy described. I see my primary challenge is creating an awareness of where God is at work. I need to work on, through prayer, becoming aware of God and as I do that I will experience his love. It is real, and God always acts with love so I see the responsibility falling to me.
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