Have you ever considered that God’s love is both ordinary AND extraordinary? It is “ordinary” in the sense that anyone can have it; and yet, it is “extraordinary” in the sense that it is unparalleled in our human experience of love.
Read the following description of love and ask yourself whether you have ever been on the RECEIVING end of love even anywhere close to it:
“Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (I Corinthians 13:4-7)
If your answer is “not even remotely,” then ask yourself whether you would LIKE to be experiencing it. Well, of course—we would ALL like for someone to love us this way—right? The fact is—someone already does, and even His very name is equated with love. (1 John 4:8) When we accept Jesus as our Lord and Saviour, He offers us a relationship inside the experience of His extraordinary love.
To live your life and fail to experience the extraordinary love of God would be a tragedy of epic proportions.
But, we must remember that even after we are born again, our experience with God—like building experiences in general—takes time and work. It’s not like we wake up one day and find we have attained a deep and meaningful relationship with God that is so powerful it sweeps us off our feet. Rather, it takes DAILY work because we’re also fighting against the enemies of our soul which seek to steal our knowledge of God’s goodness. Our three enemies are always on the move to steal God’s love from us.
It’s kind of like trying to get in shape. EVERY DAY—you must fight against the enemies of fatigue, unhealthy eating, laziness, and—discipline yourself to be in the gym, eat clean, and submit yourself to the rules of a good trainer. But—experiencing the extraordinary love of God is far, far, better than having a great physique!
In fact, His love is better than anything else we spend the majority of our time pursuing. Don’t miss this!!! Consider the time you are given today and consider how much you are investing into your relationship with God.
How does the time you’ve dedicated to spend with God today— stack up against everything else on your schedule?
The Bible helps us understand the law of sowing and reaping: “But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.” (II Corinthians 9:6) There is truly nothing more valuable that we will invest our time in today than—building our love-relationship with God!
We will achieve more than just ordinary success when our life is characterized by extraordinary love!
