Having grown up in the “knowledge of the truth over those pesky and unreliable feelings” generation, I have struggled my whole life to really know and experience the love of God.  Knowing about him was always the goal, and that somehow was supposed to translate into a relationship with him, all the while remembering to steer clear of feelings, because never forget: they can’t be trusted.  

I want more.

And I know there is more to be had.  My cousin PJ challenges me to see God’s love through new eyes.

PJ has also struggled, and with a lifetime of self-loathing and self-judgement, she believed in the pit of her stomach she could never be enough.  The freedom she has found in the love of Christ inspires me and gives me a greater sense of hunger for the love of God than I have ever known.  

One of the books she has me reading is Surrender to Love by David G. Benner.  It is a short read as far as books go, but incredibly profound. I love this passage:

“St. John of the Cross, one of the great mystics of the Christian church, said that God refuses to be known except by love…if our experience of God is limited to our thoughts about him, we have not genuinely encountered God.  And if we confuse our thoughts about God with personal knowing of God, we confuse theology with spiritual experience.

“Listen to another, even better known, Christian mystic on this.  Talking about young Christians for whom he had spiritual responsibility, he prayed that they might be so grounded in the love of Jesus that is beyond knowledge that they would be ‘filled with the utter fullness of God.’ Who was this bold person who dared to equate experiential knowing of the love of God with being filled with the fullness of God? None other than Paul the apostle of Jesus, his words recorded in Ephesians 3:14-19 and his life demonstrating the conversion that occurs when one encounters love.“

When I read these words above, I went straight to Ephesians 3:14-19 and I suggest you do the same (see below).  This powerful prayer by Paul is for those who would put their trust in Christ (us!) and it speaks to me.  Read this passage slowly and thoughtfully, letting its words sink into your heart. So important are these verses that I transcribed them below, rather than just linking them.  This is my prayer for you:

For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 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, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Does knowledge come first in your life? I invite you to be set free by Paul’s words: to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fulness of God.

The love of Christ surpasses knowledge. The love of Christ identifies us as part of his family. When we are rooted in his love, we have power to grasp and truly know this all-encompassing love so that we can be filled with the fullness of God.  This is how that happens – it is the love of Christ (not just knowledge, which is important in its own right) that makes the most profound difference in our lives when we surrender to him.

More love, more power
More of You in my life
More love, more power
More of You in my life
And I will worship You, with all of my heart
I will worship You, with all of my mind
I will worship You, with all of my strength
For You are my Lord
More love, more power
More of You in my life
More love, more power
More of You in my life

–Michael W. Smith

Do you know about Jesus or do you know him personally?

Love,
Gigi

I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message,  that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.  I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—  I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. — John 17:20b-23 (NIV)