COMPREHENDING THE MAGNITUDE

"That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God." (Ephesians 3:17-19)

Devotion 11 of 20

THE LENGTH
" . . . may be able to comprehend with all saints what is . . . length . . . "

      How long is Divine love? Again, it extends beyond the perimeter of earthly knowledge. The human intellect, no matter how disciplined and developed it may be, cannot see the fulness of Divine love. When the most astute thinker ponders the love of God in Christ Jesus, he finds that love extends further than he can see -- further than he can think -- further than he can imagine. In fact, the ONLY thing any person knows about the love of God is what he has revealed to us.

      God's love is long enough to take you from the beginning of the race to its end. There is no point in life when the believer goes beyond the love of God. A person may come short of that love by walking in darkness, resisting the Spirit, and allowing an "evil heart of unbelief" to enter (Heb 3:12). But you cannot outdistance the love of God. It is not possible for faith to take you where the love of God cannot reach you. Nor, indeed, is it possible for the grace of God to lead you where the Father's love is sparse.

      No wonder Paul prayed the Lord would "direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ" (2 Thess 3:5). So long that Divine love waited--patiently waiting until the Lamb of God took away the sin of the world (Tit 3:4; 1 John 4:9). Now that God's Lamb as put away the sin of the world, we can be directed into a fuller measure of that love than was ever before experienced. That marvelous love will surely provoke us to love God. As it is written, "We love him, because he first loved us" (1 John 4:19). The ONLY person who does not love God is the one who has not seen or known His love.

    There is nothing that can "separate us from the love of Christ." Is it not written, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? . . . Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us" (Rom 8:35-37).

      Like Divine mercy, God's love is characterized by "forever," or "everlasting" (1 Chron 16:34; Jer 31:3). The word comes from the throne of God through the Apostle Paul. "For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom 8:35-39, NASB).

    The prophet Jeremiah epitomized the "length" of Divine love in these words, "I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness" (Jer 31:3, NASB). Ah, blessed "length" of the love of God! And it can be comprehended through the power of the Spirit, the indwelling of Christ, and being rooted and grounded in love!

PRAYER POINT: Father, thank You in Jesus' name for Your love, that extends further than I can see or think.

-- Tomorrow: THE HEIGHT --