A Love Like you Can't Imagine

I have a binder chock full of articles I have written as I have traversed this life of faith and probably hundreds more on my computer.  I opened the file on my computer and started reading.  This article was written at least 10 years ago as that is when it was last edited.  Things were very different for me back then.  It was a whole lifetime ago.  But still, we can learn from our past selves and be challenged by them as well. I hope you enjoy this blast from my past.  

I have a friend who ministers to the Cambodian people as a doctor and a follower of Christ.  He sent me an article written by Henry Nouwen that made him think of me when he read it.  As I read this article some things began to click and come together for me…I want to try to elucidate them here to both convey my thoughts to you and to also consolidate and maybe get a better grasp on them myself.

The article talked about Solitude and the importance of coming to a solid understanding during our times of being alone with God, that we are His Beloved.  That is our identity…All that we are and do must spring from that fact–and if we can really grasp this-- we will be able to endure much hardship and much success.  If we solidly understand this truth: we will no longer need to seek affirmation, attention, or adulation from others…because we will have all that we need from the One who so fervently loves us. All of that nameless longing that we have (especially those of us who did not come from very affectionate homes) for love and security will be satisfied in abundance by our Father’s love.  Last night God reminded me of the following verse.

Jeremiah 31:3

³The LORD appeared to him from afar, saying,
         ”I have loved you with an everlasting love;
         Therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness.

Sometimes God is “afar” off to us but it is He who takes the initiative to “appear” to us (in Hebrew, the word for “appear” means to reveal oneself to another).  God will approach US and make us understand the fact of how greatly we are loved by Him.  This love has no end and no beginning…it exists for all time.  And God grants us favor and blessings so that we will be drawn toward Him; compelled by His kindness to approach, to know Him, and then to enter into the relationship of both a child with our parents and also a spouse with our beloved Lover.  God’s love has both the acceptance and comfort of an ideal parent and also the passion of a lover – and thus it fulfills, completely, every innate need we have.

The next thought that God gave me along these lines was that we are as important as is the One who loves us.  Obviously, we are not as important as God but He loves us so much, that this is true in a real way.  He literally left heaven’s splendor, took on the limitations and weakness of a man’s body, and came on a passionate pursuit with the purpose of saving us from the sin that had a death-grip on us and which would have stolen us, His bride, away from Him forever.  This mission necessarily involved Him dying in the pursuit of that purpose at the hands of some of those Beloved ones He had come to rescue. This death of our lover, was our judgment day–and HE bore the penalty that we deserved, for us, there on that cross.  So, because our Father/spouse gave His life for ours, He assigned that importance to us and therefore we are counted as valued and greatly treasured.  This hit me hard, because, then it is true that I AM NOT MY OWN – I have been purchased with a very high price which makes me valuable…and therefore it is very wrong of me to deliberately injure or abuse this body as I did sometimes.  It is the possession of the King.  It is the highly esteemed possession of the King….Therefore, no matter how worthless the enemy of our souls makes us feel, we must understand that this is a lie from hell and we, instead, have an inestimable value.

That is hard for me to grasp; hard for me to FEEL.  While on one hand it delights me; on the other it is hard to believe.  I think of my unworthy behavior; of my weakness; of this body that I am not so fond of–and I wonder with the hymn writer, “How can He love me so?”  But that is the first and foremost fact that God desires us to know about ourselves.  And once we do, we will never again be the same.  We will walk in confidence; we will not give anyone the power to convince us that we are worthless or not beautiful; we will never have to seek attention or affirmation from others on this earth;…are you getting this picture??  Are you bowled over in amazement?  If you’re not, then you’re not getting the picture!

Worship will change for us as well.  We will not value things that are of little or no significance anymore… Our Lover will be all that we desire.  And the Bible says that “We love because He first loved us.” That means, if you think about it, that UNTIL WE GRASP THE FACT OF HIS LOVE FOR US, we will be unable to really love Him.  And therefore, our worship will really be empty and powerless because it is not springing up from a well full of His amazing love for us.  We cannot give what we have not been given. And we cannot GET what we so greatly need and desire from anyone or anything on this earth.  We were created for relationship with God.  Nothing else will ever satisfy that longing and need.
These things all sound wonderful–but I still have not fully grasped them…nor will I ever comprehend it entirely.  It is a truth that we understand a little bit more at a time as He enlarges our capacity for Him and His love.  I hope that my words have enlarged your capacity to comprehend the truth of these things as well.  If we can get but an inkling, our lives will never again be the same!