You don't have to read my blog for long to know that this is a time of amazing abundance in my life and family. We are enjoying life like crazy. We certainly see this as a demonstration of God's goodness in our lives, but his blessings aren't what make him great. We have also experienced times of great loss and need, and our God was just as great in his mercy and comfort and provision.
The thing that was going through my mind was this passage from Ephesians 3:16-19 (and beyond):
"I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,
may have power, together with all the saints, 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."
This passage is so familiar to me that I am prone to make the mistake of assuming that by now I have already grasped how wide and long and high and deep Christ's love is. But this endeavor could last a thousand lifetimes. I wonder, do I even have a clue of the dimensions of His love?
So Lord, make me still enough to search out how truly great you are. It's not enough to be a "cup half full" person--I want to be filled with the measure of ALL your fullness!
How has God demonstrated his greatness in your life?
2 comments:
This topic has been one of confusion for me lately. At SOTV, there's been lots of talk about the misleading theology of prosperity ministry. We also talked a lot about it in Crossways. And I agreed with what was presented. But then I get going too far with this - like God's "blessing" has nothing to do with favor our good things happening in our lives. This too I think isn't accurate and is just the other end of the same spectrum (I can be a little black and white!)
When I get way too in my theological head on this one, I revert to thinking of God THE FATHER and what, as a parent, I can understand and relate to from that perspective. That His love is (while greater in all leaps and bounds ) similar to our love for our children - balanced with a desire to bless abundantly, but also appropriately and in ways that ultimately benefit the child eternally.
So, do I feel blessed? Absolutely! But I also can reflect on how I was blessed with bad things too - things that at the time were clearly major life struggles and couldn't really be viewed as 'blessings in disquise', but that now, I can see as blessings because of the growth they led to. Whether or not God "caused" the struggle in the first place, He blessed me through it. So in a way, rather than feeling blessed or not blessed, I see it more as being PARENTED by my eternal Father - and sometimes parents bless and sometimes they correct in love. Sometimes they put their child in a difficult situation so they can learn and sometimes they take advantage of an existing struggle their child is enduring to use it for their growth. Don't know if that make any sense, but those are my 2 cents at the end of a super long day!
Great perspective! Thanks. Eternity puts such a different spin on everything, doesn't it?
Post a Comment