… such is the nature of God’s love.
Every God-lover all over the world will attest to the truth that God’s Love is beyond human comprehension. It is indescribable – to mean that it can NOT be entirely or fully described – not accurately, not exactly.
What I’m about to highlight (as powerful and substantive as it is) is only but a glimpse into aspects of God’s Love. I share it as an expression of praise, and in celebration of the finished work of Christ – the basis, essence, and entirety of which is God’s Love … a love that is deep,infinite, andpersonal.
Isaiah 54:8 very well articulates all three characteristic attributes of God’s Love.
It is withlastinglove thatI AM tenderlycaring foryou
Isaiah 54:8 (MSG)
Before going into each of these attributes, I’d like to quickly call out that:
- Knowing about God’s Love is NOT the same as knowing God’s Love.
Case in point: yours truly 🙂 …
“God so loved the world He gave His only begotten Son, so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting Life” John 3:16
… I’ve knownJohn 3:16for as long as I’ve known Christmas and Easter … so (ball-parking it) I’ll say some where around when I tasted meat for the first time and could speak. This experience definitely fired up neurons in my brain that were lying dormant at the time!
Long story short: It was a case of a non-vegetarian (me) being born into a (at-the-time) vegetarian family. So yeah, the first taste of meat was life-changing! According to my parents and other eye-witness accounts, my response was: that thing called meat is sweet! 😊
Unlike my first-time-tasting-meat experience, God’s Love (the sweetest of all there is and the very essence of bible verses like John 3:16) eluded me for so long.
It didn’t matter that I knew John 3:16 by heart or that I excitedly celebrated Christmas, Easter, my birthday (yes! my birthday is also a big deal! 🥰) …
It didn’t matter that I knew (read, heard, talked) about God’s Love, I did NOT know (actively connect with) the life-giving, beautiful miracle that it is.
Years ago, I remember saying to myself: God loves me … and then asking what it actually means – specifically, what does it mean to/for me? What followed this question was ___________ … nothing, sadly so.
Thankfully, in the last two-ish years, God (in His mercy) has been showing me (and enabling me see) Him – His Love. Without fail, I’m astounded EVERY time I actively see and experience His Love for me! It awakens something in me … something beyond words, something beyond me, yet it is within me!
- Knowing God’s Love requires having a deep, intimate, and personal knowledge of God … it is otherwise impossible to know God’s Love.
Absolutely everything requisite to life has been miraculously given to us through the full(deep) knowledge of Him Who called us by/to His Own glory and excellence, by knowing Him personallyandintimately…
2 Peter 1:3
In alignment with the truth that (A) everything God gives is an expression of His Love, and (B) God is Love – 1 John 4:16… it is accurate to say that:
To know (actively experience) any and all of what God keeps ready, makes available, and has given to each person is to know God’s Love.
Hence, in line with 2 Peter 1:3, knowing God’s Love is possible through a deep, intimate, and personal knowledge of God.
The journey (for me) has been increasingly progressive – this includes the revelation, understanding, acceptance, and experience of God’s Love – all of which I’m very grateful for. The journey has been life-changing!
- Knowing God’s Love is enabled and made possible ONLY by His Spirit.
It is impossible to actively experience the Love of God in a deep, intimate, and personal way, without first being shown God’s Love (revelation), then seeing it (through the eyes/heart of understanding) … and then accepting (believing) it. ONLY the Holy Spirit can make and makes these happen. Check out: 1 Corinthians 2:10, Isaiah 11:2, Zechariah 4:6, Philippians 1:29A
Full disclosure, I wasn’t always readily accepting of God’s love (coversface).
In my (not needed) defense,God’s Love is out of this world!It’s like nothing I’ve ever experienced before … Plus, it didn’t help that at least one-third of my make-up (also known as the flesh) is incapable of accounting for God and can NEVER make sense of God’s Love, let alone accept it.
… the natural, non-spiritual man does not accept, welcome, or admit to his heart these gifts, teachings, and revelations of the Spirit of God … they are folly to him – he is incapable of knowing them …
1 Corinthians 2:14 (AMPC)
Nevertheless, God’s Love accounts for my shortcomings. Even better, His Love is unrelenting – it does NOT quit. It does NOT (can NOT) run out … it runs deep! Attribute #1 …
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God’s Love is DEEP
This can be translated to mean that …
- God’s Love is inexhaustible…
… the River of God is FULL of Water …
Psalm 65:9 (AMPC)
The river/water reference in Psalm 65:9 can be likened to God’s Love. God beckons us to dive in … to immerse ourselves in it in a Deep, Intimate, and Personal way. In other words, DIP yourself in God’s Love …
Drink deeply of the pleasures of God. Experience for yourself the joyful mercies He gives to all who turn to hide(DIP)themselves in Him.
Psalm 34:8 (TPT)
- God’s Love is sure…immovable! Every/any thing built on it issolid.
Same as with any building, the depth of its foundation determines its ability to stand the test of time. The deeper the foundation, the more immovable or solid the structure is. The same concept applies here.
- God’s Love istied to the intent and purpose of God.
Every choice God makes concerning us (i.e.Ephesians 1:4) … Every move He makes toward each person … Everything He does for us, is an expression of His Love, and is based on the wisdom of His Love which goes deep into the interior of His purposes –1 Corinthians 2:7(MSG).
In other words, EVERY expression of God’s Love toward any one person is thoroughly thought through – it is NOT happenstance … nor is it a mistake. On the contrary, it is calculated, pre-meditated, and unchanging.
The nature of His Love is expressed in the unchangeable character of His purpose … His purpose is Love, always Love.
The Eternal’s purposes will last to the end of time; the thoughts of His heart through all generations.
Psalm 33:11 (VOICE, AMPC)
With a foundation as deep as God’s Love, it’s no wonder that His purposes stand – Proverbs 19:21. They stand both the test of time and beyond time … God’s purposeful love is infinite! Attribute #2 …
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God’s Love is INFINITE
It dates back to before we got to the stage way before the stage was set.
Long before He laid down earth’s foundations, He had us in mind, God had settled on us as the focus of His Love, to be made whole and holy in His Love.
Ephesians 1:4 (MSG)
It remains (undeterred) in spite of us …
… while we were yet sinners (wasting our lives in sin), God revealed His powerful love to us in a tangible display –Christ, the Anointed One, the King of Glory, died for us.
Romans 5:8
It is NOT limited to (or only applicable) when we are unwavering/faithful.
… in order to satisfy the great, wonderful, and intense love with which He loved us, God infused our lifeless soul with life – even when we were dead by our own shortcomings and trespasses …
Ephesians 2:4-5 (AMPC, VOICE)
God is always loving us whether or not we know (actively experience and connect with the reality) that He is.
In spite of our rebellious, weak, incapable, oblivious, forgetful nature, God unreservedly loves us with an everlasting Love.
…I have loved youwith an everlasting love. I’ve never quit loving you … never will. Expect Love, Love, and more Love!
Jeremiah 31:3 (AMPC, MSG)
Before touching on Attribute #3, the characteristic of God’s Love that’s all about the “I” and “you” parts of Jeremiah 31:3, I’d like to call your attention to the words:
“I have loved you …”
God could have said “I love you”. Instead, He chose the words:“I have loved you” … He did this deliberately to make a point!
Here’s how I know:
Last year, in a conversation with God, I said to Him: I never want to be separate from you. Cast me not away from Your presence …
His response to me was: I have NOT rejected you …
I thought His response was “off” …
… I did not feel like He had rejected me and as such what I said to Him did not stem from a feeling or sense of rejection, nor did I say it to mean that He had rejected me.
Soooo why did He say I have NOT rejected you as opposed to I will NOT reject you?
Before going down a rabbit hole trying to decipher a mystery that my natural mind can NOT even begin to compute, the Holy Spirit stepped in 🥰. He revealed to me that God speaks from the perspective of what’s already done, indicating that His promises can NOT be undone.
In saying“I have loved you”… God is saying: what’s done is done and can NOT be undone. I can NOT not love you! My love for you is a forever deal!
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God’s Love is PERSONAL
To mean that …
- It is personal for Him
… I have pressed by Myself … I looked and there was no one to help … no one intervened to help the oppressed. So I had to do it alone, and I did. I Myself stepped in to save them … My own power brought salvation …
Isaiah 63:3,5 (VOICE)
God took care of our salvation personally – He did it Himself. He could have sent an angel … He could have done it any other way. INSTEAD …He made it personal. He sent Himself – in the form of a man, and as His Son.
… God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son, so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting Life.
John 3:16
- It is personal to you
Bible verses likeJohn 3:16 can seem generalized …
“God so loved the world … “
It might seem related to the collective … and it is. That said, it is uniquely personal and intimate to each individual that makes up the collective.
To elaborate on this, I’d like to call your attention to Isaiah 63:9A in connection with Hebrews 4:15…
… when they suffered, God suffered too.
Isaiah 63:9A (VOICE)
I remember reading this and immediately thinking: How can God be afflicted … or experience suffering? He is …. GOD. He is invincible!
God is Holy – there is absolutely NONE like Him. By extension, and in the loosest of terms, it means God is not human and thus is not subject to human conditioning – He can NOT be distressed, afflicted, etc.
How then can He be afflicted or distressed? How then can He suffer?
As I thought through this, the Holy Spirit stepped in … again 🥰, and showed me how.
Here’s how:
In order for Him to experience each person’s exact human experience – the good, bad, and ugly, God (still being 100% Holy) LET Himself be vulnerable and susceptible – SeLaH.
Really … take a pause to connect with the humble and suffering Love of God.
God is invincible YET, in order to satisfy the intense (deep) love with which He loves each one of us, He allows Himself be vulnerable and susceptible to each person’s unique human experience. He does this so that He can love and care for each person exactly, uniquely, intimately! … WOW! 💖
We do NOT have a High Priest Who is out of touch with our reality or unable to understand, sympathize, and have a shared feeling with our weakness, infirmities, and liability to the assaults of temptation, BUT One Who, knowing exactly how it feels to be human, has been tempted and tested in every respect as we are, yet without sinning.
Hebrews 4:15 (MSG, AMP/C)
Hebrews 4:15 could be interpreted (in its entirety) as: God (Jesus) knows exactly how you feel because He too lived on earth in human form … hence, He can relate. Yes, Jesus (God – The Son) lived on earth as a man HOWEVER, His knowledge of your unique, evolving, moment-by-moment experience is NOT entirely on the basis of His own experience as human and all He endured during His time on earth as a man 2000+ years ago.
It is also NOT because God (The Father) is El Roi (all-knowing)! – SeLah.
Yup! another pause-worthy moment …
Think about it: God could have chosen to know your every human experience by way/virtue of being all-knowing … the information would have been the same, BUT He did NOT. Instead, He chose the up deep, close, and personal approach – He bound Himself to you (Isaiah 62:4BVOICE) …
... God knows exactly how you feel BECAUSE He experiences it as it is happening – here, now, as you experience it, and even when you don’t connect with it enough (or at all) to feel, know, or experience it.
Jesus, our High Priest, knows what you go through and feel NOT solely based on His 33 years of human experience from 2000+ years ago BUT also based on His experience of your exact experience here, now, every day, all day.
It doesn’t get any more personal than this!💖
When you are in over your head … when you face stormy seas, I’ll be there with you … When you walk through the fire of oppression … the flames will not consume you.
Isaiah 43:2 (MSG, VOICE, NLT)
God’s Love is personal … the expression of His Love for you is personal for Him. Also, it is uniquely tailored and exactly-suited for you. It is particular, specific, and unique to you.
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Rivers in the Desert 
AMEN. Absolutely true. Congratulations
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Amen Absolutely true .Congratulations
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