LOVED BY GOD!

I wasn’t feelin’ it – God’s love, that is. Instead, I was feeling lonely and fearful as we launched three canoes into the swollen river.

But hold on. Before going further, let’s review identity as revealed in previous weeks from the book of Ephesians. We have every spiritual blessing in heavenly places, we are chosen, adopted, accepted, redeemed, forgiven, entrusted, God’s inheritance, we exist for the praise of His glory, we are made alive with Christ, raised up with Him, and seated together with Him in Heavenly places! Amazing!

Here is the nugget for this week from Ephesians:

“But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us…” Ephesians 2:4

In a period of my life characterized by works and performance-based living, I was struggling with the love of God. Not that I doubted “God is love”, but did He actually, truly love me? I was in my early 20s, when I went with a group of friends on a canoe trip down western Washington’s Cispus River. Heading for adventure with all the enthusiasm of youth, we were ill-equipped to handle the early spring run-off which was in full force. After a cold and terrifying couple of hours fighting the torrents, we were finally defeated, swimming two of the swamped canoes to shore and watching as the third disappeared around the bend leaving my friends struggling to keep their heads above the swirling waters. Soaked and freezing on the shore, we still hiked downriver to see what was ahead. Walking toward the canyon’s edge, the thundering roar of the river grew alarmingly louder. We had exited the river one bend short of entering the gorge. I looked over the edge at the white-water churning, swirling, and crashing over boulders with intense force, reliving the terror felt earlier. We later found the bent and twisted piece of aluminum that used to be the canoe we lost.

At the time, I was going through a “love crisis” with God. Terror in the river triggered a turbulent doubt of God’s love that had been growing in my heart, distressed by the prospect that God didn’t really love me. I was certain that my “death” in the river was going to be the exclamation mark to the statements swirling in my mind, God didn’t love me. At least, that’s how I felt.

During my emotional “recovery” from this traumatic experience, God’s revelation of love became more apparent and beautifully obvious to me. The experience became an integral part of my life story.

Months later, I shared with a group how God revealed His personal love for me in that event. An attendee approached me after, seemingly agitated by my story. He shook his head and said, “Young man, you were foolish. If I were God, I would have let you die in the river.”

BUT GOD. God, RICH in MERCY. Mercy is defined as compassionate kindness and goodwill towards the miserable and the afflicted, enjoined with a desire to help.

In various scriptures loving kindness and mercy are interchanged in English translations.

God’s love is something to be trusted more than understood!

I am the recipient of God’s benevolence as He pours out mercy from His abundant treasure stores. In misery, affliction, foolishness, and even while in sin, God’s kindness is there to meet me. Father’s MERCY has left me breathless. Sometimes His KINDNESS leaves me secure like I have just dodged a bullet. Other times, His KIND MERCY penetrates my shell to the most vulnerable places bringing truth, instruction, correction, and freedom. His MERCY inspires change (Romans 2:4). Father’s KINDNESS draws me as a child into His arms.

And the source of this abundant LOVING KINDNESS?

GOD’s LOVE! BIG LOVE! The LOVE with which I AM LOVED by Him! And I say BIG because that’s what GREAT LOVE in verse 4 means.

God’s BIG LOVE is incomprehensible to me. Any attempt I make to explain or describe it will fall miserably short. Paul later in Ephesians prays that the Father would help us comprehend and know the love of Christ that passes knowledge. He is not referring to a greater cognition or intellectual ascent. He is talking about seizing and experiencing the LOVE of God.

In actuality, God’s love is something to be trusted more than understood! It’s one thing to know God loves you. But it is entirely another to trust in full dependence on God’s GREAT LOVE!

It’s the simplicity of child-like faith. I don’t have to be “smart” about God’s love. I have to TRUST HIS LOVE. His love is there, whether I understand it or not. It’s a BIG love, even if I “feel” it only a little. His love doesn’t change. But we do. When my children were young, they didn’t understand my love, but they trusted it. Like young children, it can be challenging to recognize the Father’s love in times of correction. In these moments we rely on the words, “I love you.” And we trust God’s love supersedes our feelings, experiences, and understanding. Maturity gives perspective. Growing in trust is growing in understanding. Where God’s love felt absent or doubtful, maturity causes us to recognize His love more and more – as we trust. However BIG I think His love is now, I’m certain it does not compare to how much BIGGER it will be recognized in eternity!

WHO are you, really? LOVED by God – with BIG LOVE!

Whether you feel it or not isn’t relevant, though it is meaningful. What is relevant is, do you trust it? A good starting place is at the cross. It’s where our Father demonstrated His BIG LOVE for you and me. Jesus is the Father’s dearly LOVED Son. And Jesus gave His life for you and me so we can be ALIVE TOGETHER with Him! Trust that BIG LOVE in every situation, emotion, and circumstance. You will understand it in time.

JESUS LOVES ME THIS I KNOW! Not just a Sunday school song – a reality! Your reality! Your identity.

“Echoing Love”