For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.  Ephesians 3:14-19

God has brought this verse to me several times over the past few weeks, and I have shared it with you before.  I have really been struggling with being able to comprehend just how much I am loved by my Heavenly Father.  I know the passages, I know the songs, I know in my head that He loves me.  However, there is a disconnect between my heart and my head that has severely impaired my ability to accept this love.  I know that I am not alone.  I find comfort in this, but at the same time, am saddened by it.  Sad because there are so many women out there that long to be loved and cherished.  They just need to know and feel that they are special and important to someone, that they are loved with an everlasting love. Because of this, my heart echoes Paul’s prayer.

This past weekend at Deeper Still the Lord address my doubts and fears.  He spoke loud and clear to my heart.  As I sat and listened to Kay Arthur talk about how much God loves me, every question, doubt and fear floated to the surface.  I am unworthy of God’s love.  I have not done enough to earn God’s love.  I keep messing things up and getting in the way of what God wants to do in my life.  How could anyone love me “that much”?  As I thought about each of my hang-ups the Holy Spirit showed me that they are just that, MY hang-ups! I get so caught up in how poorly I am doing that my pity party drowns out the voice of God trying to speak to my heart.  Ever been there? 

I am not sure if God just got tired of my hard head and decided to speak a bit louder, or if he was tired of competing with my pity parties, but Friday night, for the first time ever, my head and my heart finally connected.  I will never fully understand God’s love for me, but I was able to accept it, to cherish it, to stand with my arms wide open and feel the Lord lavish me in His love.  I now know without a shadow of a doubt that regardless of anything I say or do, God’s love for me is constant, steady, firm, unwavering, unconditional, everlasting.  It gives peace, hope, joy and contentment.  My heart is so full I feel as though it may burst… my cup runneth over!  And as it runs over, my prayer is that you will get at least a little splash!

I want more than anything for you to know how much you are loved.  No matter what you have done in your past, where you are now, what you think of yourself, or where society has placed you, YOU ARE LOVED.  And this love is more than mere human love.  This love is divine and unconditional.  This love caused God to sacrifice the life of His one and only Son simply because He wants to spend eternity with you.  Let that soak in for just a moment….

God created our hearts with a spiritual void, an empty space that can only be filled with His love.  We can try to fill it with many things of this world, but all of those things will wither away, leaving our hearts empty once again, desperate for love.  We find ourselves back at the start, looking for anything to fill that void again.  This is a vicious and destructive cycle that must be stopped.  But, until we are willing to accept the one thing that we need and stop looking to this world to fill our spiritual void, the cycle will never stop.  This is where Christ steps in.  Paul tells us in Romans that while we were still sinners, enemies of God, looking for something to fill that void in our hearts, Christ gave the ultimate sacrifice to show us just how much we are loved.  Christ gave his very life, his last breath, to bring us back to God and give us the hope of living with him eternally.  This is the only love that will ever fill that void.  And until we are able to fully accept this love, we will never have the peace the Lord intends for us to have.

The amazing thing about God’s grace is that He gives us what we don’t deserve, His love.  None of us deserve this gift.  If we did, then the Christ’s sacrifice would be pointless and Christ’s death meaningless.  Each of us must come to the place in our lives where we stand face to face with Jesus and decide whether or not we are going to accept his grace, his love.  This is the most important decision we will ever make.  I pray, the same as Paul, that you will be filled with strength and wisdom and be able to comprehend this love.  Even more than that, I pray that you are able to accept His love.  Allow God to lavish you in His love, filling you to overflowing.

I don’t know where you are in life right now.  I don’t know your struggles or victories, your heartache or joy, your pain or delight.  I don’t know if you are  standing on His promises, or if you are face down in the valley of despair.  I do know this, no matter where you are, HE IS THERE WITH YOU!  He knows exactly where you are, what you are going through, and what He has planned for your future.  And let me reassure you, what He has planned for your future is far better than anything you can think or imagine!