God Loves Me?

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     Growing up in church, teaching about God's love was limited. I believe, there could have been a fear of speaking about God's love because some thought it might somehow diminish His grandiosity, His otherness, & perhaps make Him too human. Or maybe teaching about His love was limited because we, the humans, could not wrap our minds around it especially in a world that has so misused so rich of a word--love.
     I struggle trying to comprehend God's love because my sight is often made cloudy by my sin, my all-too-often smallness of faith, & honestly a perspective that limits who God is because it's so focused on my shortcomings.
     Recently, the Lord has been working on my heart specifically regarding His love. It started as I was reading through I John.  John writes "We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us" (4:16). As I read through the entire epistle, I was struck by the notion of "coming to know" and "believing" God's love.  For me, this implies a journey in comprehending a covenant knowledge and closeness of God's love for us. My heart breaks over how little I understand of God's love. The God who created me. The God who sought me out and gave me a name. The God that took His Son, offering Him so the gap existing between He and I would be bridged. What a love!
     Coming to know and believe God's love is something at which we must labor. Paul offers this prayer about the love of God, "that you being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth & to know the love of Messiah which surpasses knowledge...(Eph. 3:17-19)." What a prayer! No longer, do I want to flippantly talk about God's love. I want to mediate on this truth as part of my daily faith walk.  Literally, my walk of faith has been shaken by this transformative truth--that God loves me and it's time for me to believe it and keep believing it!
     This journey in coming to know and believe His love encourages me. May we never doubt and most importantly exercise our hearts to know and believe the love God has for us.

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