Immersed In Love

Psalm 136

His faithful love endures forever. (Psalm 136:1)

PSALM 136 MENTIONS a lot of things God did on behalf of Israel, and every phrase is punctuated by an emphatic reminder: “His faithful love endures forever.” This statement appears in each of the twenty-six verses of this psalm, clearly making the point that all of God’s works—even his works of judgment—are motivated by love. We see that theme often in Scripture, particularly in the New Testament writings about the work of Christ. Jesus was sent into the world because God loved it. His love has been poured out on us extravagantly, and we are urged to understand the height, width, depth, and lengths of God’s love and all its power. In fact, God is love. It is his defining characteristic.

That means that if you want to know God, and if you want the world to know him, you will have to saturate yourself in this love. It may seem uncomfortably selfish at times to bathe in the love of God so thoroughly and personally, but it’s the only way you can become the vessel of love he is creating you to be. You will be able to love others only to the extent that you experience his love for yourself. You will forgive others only to the extent that you experience his forgiveness for yourself. You will bless others only to the extent that you have understood blessing in your own life. Your capacity to give love depends entirely on your capacity to receive it. It will shape your life more than any other force.

That’s a powerful rebuke to many of us who once assumed that God’s love is just basic Christianity and then pursued higher things. According to Scripture, there is no higher thing. This is it. After all his years of following Jesus, John the disciple wrote of little else in the letters of his old age. The Christian life is a matter of going deeper in experiencing the love of God and going further in expressing it. Our life of faith begins and ends with the love of God. So does our testimony and influence in this world. Immerse yourself in it completely.

{Lord, make my walk with you a story of ever-increasing encounters with your love. Immerse me in it. Let it transform me. May it so fill me that I overflow with it into the lives of all around me. Amen.