God is Love

eDevotion

Encouragement for your daily walk with God 

I read through the book of Ephesians yesterday and I was struck by something that Paul said. As he prayed for the Ephesian Christ followers, he asked God to grant them “strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge” [Ephesians 3.18-19].

I thought to myself, I’ll write about the love of God. As I began to contemplate the subject, it seems to me that I became overwhelmed with God’s love just thinking about the it. All of a sudden, I realized that I needed strength to comprehend God’s love just as the Ephesians did. I needed strength to comprehend that God’s love is wide and long and high and deep.

It may not be much, but here are my thoughts:

How wide is the love of God? It’s wide enough to incircle anyone who comes to Him, people lost in religion or lost in rebellion. It embraces young and old, black and white (and every color in between!), North Carolinians and North Koreans. God’s love hugs the rich and poor, the educated and illiterate. He loves those who love Him and those who hate Him. Oh, how wide the love of God!

How long is the love of God? It’s so long you can neither get in front of it nor behind it. It’s long enough to cover your past and your future. You can’t abbreviate it. You can’t interrupt it. It is from everlasting to everlasting, pure and perfect. Oh, how long the love of God!

How high is the love of God? It’s higher than the highest building and taller than Mt. Everest. It is taller than your greatest dream and taller than your greatest Goliath. It transcends the heavens. Oh, how high the love of God!

How deep is the love of God? God’s love is deeper than the depths of the ocean, deeper than your darkest hour, deeper than your deepest pit. His love is deeper than the accumulated wisdom of all philosophers. His love is deeper that the deepest well, but better, it never runs dry. Oh, the depths of God’s love!

His love is wider, longer, higher and deeper “than tongue or pen can ever tell. It goes beyond the highest star, and reaches to the lowest hell.” * 

Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 1 John 4.8

* from The Love of God, Frederick Lehman, 1917