Power to Know the Love of God
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“Jesus loves me, this I know,” is a startling truth that should affect our lives profoundly. Do you know that Jesus loves you? It’s true even if you don’t feel it. How can you know for sure? “Because the Bible tells me so.”
John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” God does not see you as you see yourself, whether it’s addicted, co-dependent, obsessive or simply unworthy of His love. God sees you as His beloved child. “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!” (1 John 3:1).
Now it is easy to say God loves you; you have probably heard it many times before. Yet how can you and I make it real in our lives, so real that it changes who we are and how we see things? We can’t. The good news is God can. God has the power to change how we think, thus changing who we are. We can begin to seek His power through prayer.
One of the best ways I’ve found to pray is to follow the prayers written for us in the Bible. I think my favorite prayer is Paul’s prayer for the Christians in Ephesus, in Ephesians 3:14 – 21.
Paul prays for them to receive power, “so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith”. We also need power to understand the love of Christ. On our own it is impossible to comprehend how much God loves us. Paul writes, “And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high 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.”
How wide is God’s love? Wide enough to reach the homosexual, the prostitute, the abuser, the abused, the poor, the rich and wider still.
How long is God’s love? Longer than our rebellion; longer than our running and hiding from Him; longer than our apathy.
How deep is God’s love? Deeper than the wounds our hearts have felt, that no one else understands; deeper than our feelings of unworthiness; deeper than our insecurities, our fears.
How high is God’s love? This is the really wonderful part: higher than our intellect can comprehend, higher than our experience has felt.
If I understood how God loves me, would I seek human love the way I do now? Would I yearn for the approval of my parents, my husband, my children, or my friends? Would I fill my life with food or possessions or trinkets of my success? Paul says that Christ’s love can “fill us to the measure of all the fullness of God”. When I am full of God, I lack nothing; I am freed from the needs and habits that enslave me. When I am full of God, I will yearn for Him alone.
Dear God, I pray for myself and for women everywhere, that we would have power to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and that we would know this love that surpasses knowledge – that we would be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Questions: Why do we need God’s power to understand His love? Tell us your experience with the wideness or depth of God’s love.
About the Author Suzanne Benner
Tags: addicted, Bible, God, good news, homosexual, insecurities, knowledge, love, obsessive, poor, power, prostitute, rich, unworthy
11 Responses to “Power to Know the Love of God”
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Hi Suzanne,
This is awesome. This write up has given me an assurance that my yearning for him all the time is not a matter of weidness as I feel people think about me. But I am glad to read from you that afterall I am only full of God when I yearn for Him alone.
thank you
suzanne, thank you for the devotional.
sharon brown, welcome. there is much love and compassion passing through each devotional written and the support and comfort from all the ladies is truly inspirational.
denise2, may I join you in your AMEN? it was like you knew my thoughts. God bless
Hi Ibi, just thought I’d let you know that Suzanne Benner in the States did/sent this devotional. Bless ya heaps n heaps hon. :-)
“When I am full of God, I lack nothing; I am freed from the needs and habits that enslave me. When I am full of God, I will yearn for Him alone.”
AMEN! That is my hearts desire.
Sharon,
Thanks for the daily devotional.
Tracey: I have learnt from Joyce Meyers and Derek Prince that when I find that I’m under attack, I loudly declare: 2 cor 10:4-5 & Isaiah 54:17 then pray “if anyone has spoken against me or has wished me harm, I forgive them. Having forgiven them I bless them in the name of the Lord”. These verses are very powerful spiritual warfare and will not only protect you but strengthen you too. You can also make sure you put on your spiritual armour each day, based on Eph 6:14-18. May the Lord our God keep you safe and hide you from the enemy. :-)
It seems no matter where we are in our lives or where we are in our walk with Jesus – - our path becomes clouded or filled with fog. These past couple of weeks have been ones of endurance for me. The devil has thrown many-many-many obstacles in my path and has now resorted to attacking not only me personally and physically but now my family as well. I broke today and began shouting out to God for……. something…….anything….. Just wanted to feel His presence in a real and tangible way. As always He broke through: using the people around me and this devotional. Thank-You for your obedience and love for Jesus and your fellow woman!!!
I can’t tell you how much I needed to read this today. Many thanks for kicking me out of my sense of unworthiness.
Suzannne, this is the best devotional I’ve received yet. (I joined up a week or so ago).It contains real meat from the word all through it, and also has a lot of meaningful and thoughtfully prepared thoughts. Thank you so much.
A couple of years ago, I experienced God’s love abundantly whilst I wasin bed 99% of the time with endo and CFS, on many drugs because of the intense pain and unbearable & continuous shaking. I couldn’t do anything at all but lie there. But He was there for me and day by day helped me, carried me and loved me. My doctor and friends and family kept saying they didn’t know how i kept being so positive and trusting, and didn’t understand how I didn’t slip into deep depression. It was because of Gods beautiful and compassionate love that I got through. Thank you Lord :-)
Thank you Suzanne!! this is exactly what I needed today :) and the last few lines about being filled up by God…exactly what I needed.
Thank you for blessing my life today :)