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Autumn 2008 Web Devotionals
Nearly 2000 years ago, a man by the
name of Paul, prayed that you would be able to comprehend
and to experience the love of God. That’s right ... You!! He prayed for you! You might
want to read about it in Ephesians 3: 14 – 19.
Paul
not only wanted you to understand that
God loves you ... but he wanted you to experience it
in a deep, real way. How do we experience
the love of God? After all ... He is in heaven and I am on earth, right?
Actually,
there are many ways to experience the assuring, invigorating love of God. Sometimes
you will feel His tangible love in a great church service ... or during a moment
of worship so intimate that your heart can feel His presence. That’s
God’s love …
I often am reminded of His unconditional love in
an intense prayer meeting. Have you ever been
to the kind of prayer meeting when you just know
that for that moment in history ... heaven is touching
earth! That’s God’s love...
I also experience
His absolute love for me when I am reading my Bible. His Words come to
life and spring off the page and into my heart. That’s God’s love...
Some of you may have felt God’s love when you hear a testimony of a missionary
literally laying down their life for the sake of a remote group of people.
That’s God’s love at its finest...
Let me just
take a moment ... and propose to you that perhaps the most genuine way to experience God’s
love is when we act like God. It’s when we love like God loves. When
we are able to overlook the disappointments, the frustrations, the smell, the
mess, the immaturity of a relationship ... and to just respond in love.
We love
not because someone deserves it ... or earns it. We love when we don’t
feel like it and when we get absolutely nothing in return.
If you don’t
believe it ... let me remind you of a few Words from the Bible:
“Beloved,
let us love one another, for love is from God, and everyone who loves is born
of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God for
God is love. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” I
John 4: 7,8 & 11.
So
... when you are feeling lonely and unloved ... I have a solution for you. Go
out and extravagantly love someone else! That’s God’s love
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