Determining God's heart for us...

I went to the mall yesterday with my mom. We passed a newsstand that had two stacks of newspapers. One stack had a sign that said, “Good news, 50 cents.” The other stack had a sign that said, “Bad news, half a dollar.”

In a world where lies, deceit, unfaithfulness, discouragement, depression, and heartbreak run rampant, it is understandable why it is so difficult for us to truly grasp how immensely God loves us. Our hearts have been so desensitized to what true love is, we can hardly recognize it, and harder still, accept it when it is freely given. One of my favorite scriptures in the Bible is Ephesians 3:16-19:

“I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. 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.”

A close look as these verses could possibly equip us enough to faintly comprehend the incomprehensible love God has for us.

“Out of His glorious riches…” (God’s provision)

• God has dominion over ALL! He possesses all. Everything was made by Him and for Him. If that wasn’t the case, we wouldn’t have Romans 8:28. God said He will work through all things for our good. God works though all for His glory. He uses all to bring His name the praise, not because He needs a self-esteem booster, but because of what happens when we praise God. God wants us to find Him because He knows that we need Him. When we praise Him, we are connected to Him. That’s why we praise Him in spirit and in truth, qualities He posseses. John 4:23-24 says, “Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and His worshippers must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” When we connect ourselves to Him in spirit and in truth we then become connected to and have access to His glorious riches.

“Strengthen you with power through His spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith” (God’s presence)

• God doesn’t ask us to be strong, He asks us to rely on Him. II Corinthians 12:9-10 says, “But He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” God knows that we have limits to what we can do by ourselves. That’s why He wants us to rely on His infinite strength. Also, it is important to realize, God doesn’t call the equipped, He equips the called. If God asks us to do something that is already in our ability, then we lose sight of who is really in charge because all we have to do is depend on ourselves. But, how much greater and stronger is the testimony if God calls us to move mountains or lead His people, or preach to the nations because He knows we can’t do that on our own, but with His strength. Then, everyone will be drawn to Him because they see Him through the way we rely on Him.
• The second part to this line is “through His spirit in your inner being.” God is ALWAYS with you. He sent the Holy Spirit to reside in us. John 17:23 says, “I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” Here, Jesus is praying before He is arrested. He declares that He will be in us just as God is in Him. How amazing is that? If we have the revelation of that state of being, then we really can have the faith that moves mountains.

“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”

• When you are rooted and established in the knowledge of how much you are loved, you will be unstoppable. Rooted, like an oak tree that doesn’t just have one root, but an intricate network of roots systematically searching for the nutrients needed to support its giant structure.
• This mention of power alludes to the fact that the power does not come from you, but from the Spirit that is at work within you. We cannot grasp the immense love God has for us in our own ability. It takes God to love God. We can try to grasp His love by meditating on the fact that He gave from Himself, to bring us unto Himself. Even this won’t help you fully begin to understand.

Pursue God in a way that completely takes over who you think you are. Discover how much God loves you in a way that makes you forget about false pretenses, insecurities, fear, and doubt. Seek His beauty. Seek His love. Seek His presence. Seek His assurance. Seek what He wants for you. Seek how He sees you. Discover how to live in His will. Discover how to relate to Him. Discover how He speaks to you. Discover His presence. It’s not what you can do for God. It’s about realizing He’s worthy and giving yourself completely to Him. It is selfish of you to hold on to what you think is right or righteous or is the right decision for yourself. Your life is not your own in the first place so how can you hold on to descriptions about yourself that don’t come from God? He is the answer. His love is the answer. His love casts out fear. He is the only one.

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Sarah Gerald is a recent graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a future graduate of the Campus Harvest Academy for Student Evangelism. Her goal is to teach others about who God is even as she learns more and more about Him. She blogs at A Worshipful Heart in a Warring World.