If We Can Only Receive It!
One of the hardest things for us as homo sapiens is to comprehend how an all-powerful God could look upon us, His Creation, and love us, just as we are. We know every single thing we did that proves that we are unworthy of anyone’s love, most of all – God’s love. Yet, scripture keeps trying to reinforce this very thing over and over, and none is so well stated as the following:
14-19 My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you’ll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:14-19 (MSG)
We find in this translation the expanse of the love of God – it has breadth, length, depth and heights – far beyond anything we could ever ask for or even think. He desires for us to have a full life, a rich life filled with not only HIs love but love from our fellow sojourners. He wants us to experience the very desires of our heart.
God is not standing by handing out penalties for the sins we’ve committed once we have placed them at the foot of the cross. He is not doling out penance with a jail sentence that we have to serve in order to pay for our sins. JESUS PAID IT ALL! Saying that and embracing that in our hearts is sometimes a journey within itself. I guess that’s why Paul said to reach out, to test, to plummet, to rise –
That’s why we have this Scripture text: No one’s ever seen or heard anything like this, Never so much as imagined anything quite like it— What God has arranged for those who love him. But you’ve seen and heard it because God by his Spirit has brought it all out into the open before you. The Spirit, not content to flit around on the surface, dives into the depths of God, and brings out what God planned all along. Who ever knows what you’re thinking and planning except you yourself? The same with God—except that he not only knows what he’s thinking, but he lets us in on it. God offers a full report on the gifts of life and salvation that he is giving us. We don’t have to rely on the world’s guesses and opinions. We didn’t learn this by reading books or going to school; we learned it from God, who taught us person-to-person through Jesus, and we’re passing it on to you in the same firsthand, personal way. 1 Corinthians 2:10-17 (MSG)
Maria