I don’t know about you, but I had a really busy summer. It seems to have flown by so fast! But looking back on it now, I realize that I was so blessed to be able to do a LOT of different things this past summer that really grew me as a person and even more so as a believer.
First of all, I think I read over TEN BOOKS this past summer, which is totally a record for me (Shout out to Ted Dekker! If you haven’t heard of Him, you should definitely check him out! His series “The Circle” will change you life!!!), and almost every book I read somehow brought me back to the idea of God’s immense love for me- for His Church, for His Bride, for His people- and the desperate measures He took in order to ensure that I would have an eternal spot in heaven with Him.
Then on top of all that reading, I went to Ballet Magnificat’s summer dance intensive in Jackson, Mississippi in July for four weeks! And boy did God do a lot of things in me during that month! But like I said, everything I’ve learned has kept coming back to that one idea of Love. GOD’S Love.
We studied the book of Ephesians while I was at Ballet Mag, and one of the big parts we focused on was God’s Love, and how HUGE it is yet how close and real it is at the same time. We, as human beings, cannot even comprehend how great the Love of our Father is!
“But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions- it is by grace you have been saved.”
Ephesians 2:4-5
God saved us not because of anything we did or could EVER do, but solely because He loves us THAT much and cared about us enough to give Himself up for us!
“I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, 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.”
Ephesians 3:17-19
“...and to KNOW this love that surpasses knowledge...” I love that part! That’s exactly what God’s been working with me on: KNOWING His Love. It’s so easy, for us as people, to get all caught up in our emotions and wanting to feel God’s Love. And for me personally, when I’m not really feeling God’s Love, I start to get kinda panicky on the inside and I freak out and feel like I’m doing something wrong and begin to worry that I’m not pursuing God hard enough, etc, etc... But in reality, I’m just getting all caught up in my feelings, and that’s just human nature. However, God is ABOVE all of our feelings, and although He does allow us to sometimes feel his love, “He doesn’t always choose to work in fireworks.” :) He doesn’t always reveal Himself to us in the way that we hope He will. He doesn’t always come to us in this big, dramatic way, where our lives are being wrecked by Him and we’re feeling His love wrap around us for the first time and we’re bawling our eyes out all over the place- No. Sometimes, He simply asks us to step out and choose Him, even though we don’t feel Him at all. And That’s where faith comes in. We’ve experienced God’s Love and seen evidence of it all around us time and time again, so even in those times when we don’t feel His Love at all, we can still fully trust that it is there and it is just as present as always.
It’s like a piece of cake.
If you see someone holding a big plate of chocolate cake, you can just look at that piece of cake and know that it’s good. Of course, if you’re anything like me, you’ll probably stare at that piece of chocolate cake and drool over it and want so badly to devour it, that you beg and beg for that person to give you just the smallest, little bite... but the fact of the matter is, you don’t have to taste the cake to know that it’s going to be good. The Bible says to “Taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34:8). Taste AND see. Sometimes God allows us to taste that cake- to taste His Love and to experience it afresh all over again- but other times He just wants us to see the cake and to see His Love at work all around us and remember that He IS still good no matter what we're feeling.
Then, whether we're "tasting" or "seeing", all we have to do is simply live in His Love and enjoy every moment He gives us, big and small.
“Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”
Ephesians 5:1-2
We just have to stay in an attitude of Love towards Him and towards others, and always remain in awe of the greatness of His Love- His perfect Love that drowns out all fear (1 John 4:18)- because all things fade away in comparison to the Love of God, and all we really do need in this life is His LOVE. :)
Here’s a quote one of my friends shared with me that I’d like to end with-
“It’s really cool you want to be passionately in love with Jesus as much as you can, but please don’t beat yourself up about this. Be prepared for the seasons when you’ll barely hang on to God with an intellectual thread, and other seasons where you’ll be so head-over-heels for Jesus that you’re getting tattoos of him on your rib cage. Be ready to be honest in your dry valleys, and be ready to rejoice on the mountaintop. Enjoy both seasons, because both help you grow and both have significance in our lives. The winter and fall teach you to grow deep roots into God even when you don’t feel Him, and the summer and spring are those powerful weeks of blooming fruits and plentiful harvest that will have you laughing and weeping at the same time. Soon you’ll also see: loving Jesus is not even really up to you, because he’s the one who woos, who draws, who beckons, who calls. Loving Him is the easy part; God loving you cost His Son. The more you know that it’s less about you, the more free you will be to love God all the more.” J. S. Park
~McKenna
