Anything But Ordinary (Part 3): God’s Unexpected Love
There’s more
I wish I could tell you that all my questions about “God’s love” have been answered. That now you’ve come to the right place, because all of yours will soon be answered too. But this post wasn’t about inviting you to a place filled with complete answers, but one of complete honesty. And in my experience, that’s the best path for arriving at the right place.
Here’s the thing, I don’t know “where you’re at” as it relates to God’s love. But when His love isn’t present as it should be in our life, I’ve found that there are 3 categories we fall into. There are those of us who have—
No Clue
Whether it’s out of sight, out of mind, or simply rejected—these people have no idea what it means to experience the love of God.
There are those who—
Think They Know
These people have a moment with God, such as deciding to accept Christ as their Savior, but there’s nothing more to show of it. Any sign of an ongoing, healthy relationship with God is virtually nonexistent.
And there are those who—
Have Forgotten
These are people who have not only experienced God’s love, but have enjoyed what it means to live in fellowship with Him—to do life with Him.
But over the course of time, the trials of life have left them complacent, hardened, or wounded in such a way that, they live distanced from the joy of God’s love. Regardless of where you are now—
God has more for you.
Way more. His love isn’t just “some good thing” to add to your life, it’s the only thing worth having to begin with. And yet, so few of us ever experience this love on the deeper levels that God Himself intended.
The truth is, all good things that we have or will ever experience in this life are a byproduct of God’s perfect love. That’s why, my hope is that His love will begin to move beyond your head & straight to your heart. Because when that happens—
everything changes.
One of the best illustrations of this idea was famously shared by C.S. Lewis. In his book, Mere Christianity, Lewis shared the following parable:
“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently, He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts and does not seem to make any sense.
What on earth is He up to?
The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage, but He is building a palace.
He intends to come and live in it Himself.”
A heart condition
Make no mistake, God’s love is not an intellectual issue, but an issue of the heart. It’s not a concept to be grasped, it’s something to be engulfed by— which no words can adequately describe.
The fact of the matter is, we all have a heart condition. Our symptoms may look different, but the source of our solution remains the same. This is about identifying the symptoms that you know to be true for you, and inviting God to meet your need as only He can do.
Unknown Symptoms
For some of us, there’s a void inside of us that we’ve carried through life. An undeniable desire of wanting more than what the world has to offer, but never finding anything that’s capable of filling that hole.
The good news is, although you may know nothing about God, there’s nothing He doesn’t know about you. He “knew you before you were in your mother’s womb” (Jeremiah 1:5).
He “knows the very number of hairs on your head” (Luke 12:7), and “He knows that the deepest desires of your heart were made to be met by Him” (Phillip. 4:19). God knows you.
His desire is for you to know Him.
To recognize just how close He has always been, and more importantly, to invite Him even closer. The moment that you invite God into your heart is the moment that you experience what the Bible explains in Ephesians 3:16-19 (NLT), which says:
“Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God…the power to understand how wide, how long, how high, and how deep His love is…to experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully.”
Life-Altering Symptoms
For many of us, we’re okay with the idea of God saving our soul, but we still have a desire to “live our own life”. For years & years, I lived with this tension myself, believing the lie that life with Him meant the end of my own adventure.
Let me explain it this way:
If somebody described marriage to you based on everything you “can and can’t do”, but left out all of the things that make a marriage what it actually is—you’d never want to be married.
That was my dynamic with God. All I saw were the do’s and don’ts; but when I finally saw Him through the lens of relationship, it changed everything. As it turns out, God is not a rules-first god.
He’s a relationship-First God.
He doesn’t just want what’s best for you, He has what’s best for you. We try and measure our version of what “we think He has to offer” to our idea of a good life, but it’s simply incomparable.
God doesn’t offer us a good life, He offers us the best life. Which Jesus revealed in John 10:10 (NLT), when He said:
“…My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life”.
Or as C.S. Lewis put it, “the Son of God became a man so that men could become sons of God”. As a son or daughter of God, you have an inheritance. Your inheritance is a life that’s filled with hope, purpose, and love. For some of you, it’s time to start really living life.
It’s time to claim your inheritance.
Severe Symptoms
And then there’s others of us, who have found ourselves beaten down after enduring blow after blow in life’s daily battles. It’s not that hardships weren’t expected, it’s just hard to wrap our minds around struggling to this degree. Especially when you know the goodness of God.
It’s in times like these when we need to be redirected to things we know to be true. Things that restore our sense of peace & our faith in God’s unfailing love for us. In the context of hardship, 2 Corinthians 4:8 (NLT) reminds us of our common struggle.
“We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair.”
Hardship, heartache, and confusion are part of the human experience. But as Christians, our experience should also include a deeper understanding, dependency, and appreciation for the God who promises“to never leave us or forsake us”. The God “who works all things for good for those who love Him & are called to His purpose”.
That’s who our God is.
He’s our Father in Heaven, who in love, is leading us to different levels of spiritual maturity. Faithfully developing our character day after day, so that we can be our best & give our best to the world around us. As any good parent knows, if you deliver your child from all adversity, you’ll rob them of all development.
God is blessing you through your breakings.
Don’t let your limited perspective diminish the presence of God’s unlimited love. The love of God goes places no one will go, does things no one can do, and that’s the kind of love that God’s put inside of you. Lean into His loving presence again. And never forget—
The best is always yet to come.
uncontainable
God’s love is like pollution—good pollution.
If you stay in it long enough, it will get to every part of you. In time, there won’t be an ordinary bone left in your body. It may start in your head, but if you allow it, it’ll go far deeper than that.
From your mind, to your heart, down to the depths of your very soul. When you allow God’s love in, it transforms you. The new comes in, the old goes out. It’s unexpected, unexplainable, and uncontainable.
it’s anything but ordinary.
WANT An easy WAY TO maintain perspective?
Text the keyword think to the number 77222.
you’ll receive one free text message each week there’s a new post (which includes a direct link to the post).
It’s that easy.
Prefer Email updates?
Enter your email address in the form below .
you’ll receive one email update each week there’s a new post.
If you have a facebook:
You can Click here to follow our Facebook page, which features A variety of quotes & verses to encourage you throughout your week.
*also, you can ‘Recommend’ the blog (under the review tab) which helps us reach more people.
Your part makes a difference:
every time you share the blog with somebody, you’re giving them the opportunity to be impacted by a Christ-Inspired message.
thank you for choosing to be a part of tHINKONE9 👍
today’s Takeaways
“The Son of God became a man so that men could become sons of God”
God is blessing you through your breakings.
God knows you, and His desire is for you to know Him.