God's Intimate Love For Us

Continuing my reading on love and compassion, I am reading out Paul's letter tot the Ephesians.

Ephesians 3:14-19 NIV
For this reason I kneel before the Father, [15] from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. [16] I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, [17] so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, [18] may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, [19] and to know this love that surpasses knowledge---that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Yesterday in church we were discussing the reality of God's love for each of us, and the need a for a deep revelation of His love for us at a personal level. We weer singing a song during worship about how amazed we are by God's love. I think at times these are words we sing, but not really our experience. I think many of us walk around wondering if God really loves us, beyond the universal love that He has for all people. We have a hard time connecting to God on a very personal level. I am sure that few people could answer affirmatively that they know that God really likes them and just likes being around them.

I love listening too and reading the writings of Graham Cooke, as he is one of the best examples of someone who seems to walk in this intimate relationship with God, where he seems to know God's character, not because he read about it, but because he has encountered it. I love listening to him share, as it gives me hope that the same thing could be available to me.

Here Paul is writing about grasping how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ. He talks about a love that surpasses all knowledge. That is what I am after. I don't want to experience a love of God, that is based on my knowledge of God, but rather want to know deep in my heart His love for me. I want a deep revelation of God's amazing love. I want to be able to share about God's love for me with the same authenticity authority that I can share about my wife's love for me. I want the deep sense of relationship where I can anticipate His thinking and actions, in the same way that I can my sweetheart. I want to know that the Lord loves me, and that He likes me and loves to be around me. I believe this is the type of intimacy that Jesus had with the Father while He ministered on the Earth, and because He demonstrated this its is possible for me to walk in it too.

Lord, like Paul, I pray that You might give us the power and revelation to understand Your incredible love for us, at a personal level. That we might fully grasp just how madly in love with us You are, and how much You like us. Lord, that this revelation would go far beyond knowledge and words, and strike to the very core of our hearts. It is because of love that You came to Earth (Jn 3:16-17) and I want to experience that reality fully in my life.