How do you measure God’s love…

By Jecinta Powell on November 10, 2019 • ( Leave a comment )

Song of Songs 8:6-7
“Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; For love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame. Many waters cannot quench love; Rivers cannot sweep it away. If one were to give all the wealth of one’s house for love, it would be utterly scorned.”

Many tend to compare the stretch of their material gains to the level in which God love’s them. This idea to me is for the weak, although a misconception mostly brewed by religious leaders. Your level of material possession is not a basis of how much God loves you. I believe the magnitude in which you love God is the same level in which he will increase his love for you, even if he loved you first. “We love because He first loved us.” A love so strong that he gave his only son for us to be closer to him. So don’t you think he would want you to love him in return, even if it is not as much as he loves you. Therefore, I strongly believe the way to measure his love, is by appraising the love you have for him. Common! it cannot be one sided. And when one spends time with him in devotion, adoration, gratitude and deep affection, our father becomes fond of this rare soul. Hence, our almighty provider, pillar, healer, omnipotent, cornerstone, righteous judge, protector, comforter, finisher, overseer, master-planner, sustainer, strong-tower, avenger…., releases unexplainable WISDOM, PEACE and FAITH, which to my understanding are THE REAL WEALTH.

1 John 4:8
“Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”

“Proverbs 4:23
“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”

Spend time loving your father as though he is in the flesh.

Galatians 5:13
“You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; Rather, serve one another humbly in love.”

But why do we quantify God’s love to depreciating asserts like marriage, luxurious cars or houses? With wisdom, reputation is more valuable than gold. With faith, comes perseverance, patience, humility and sensitivity. With peace, flows calmness, expectations and trust. All lasting supernatural virtues that only comes from God- signs of his love. So when next you want to say or attribute a situation to God, please do not measure his love to just a brand-new car, instead say “God loves me so much, he left an unexplainable peace in my heart when I was suffering” Such a phenomenal utterance is a certain knowledge that the speaker is aware of what “God’s love” truly means. The ability to suppress and conquer fear and anxiety are also indications of how much time you both have spent together. Many moments reciprocating his love— listening, questioning, pleasing, praising, practicing, thanking and even fighting. It is when we obey yet fight him that he truly knows we consider his as an ever-present father. True sons and daughters with real emotions towards him. By spending time, his love seed which he has planted before we came to be germinates. It grows, releasing branches, fresh leaves and juicy fruits. It becomes a tree that never withers, a mystery which bears fruit in every season, a foundation that can never be uprooted. Hence, riches are not exactly and always a product of God’s love. Seeing that most riches are forced or sourced from other means, the good things of life are only a reflection of his love, but are not a direct product of his love.

Proverbs 3:3-4
“Let love and faithfulness never leave you; Bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. Then you will win favour and a good name in the sight of God and man.”

1 John 4:7
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.”

The question is how do you love God? To love God is to love your neighbours as yourself. Aside from fellowshipping with him, what our father in our hearts desires most is for his children to love one another. Desiring to love God, one must start with the people around him and seek absolutely nothing in return. Expecting good deeds in return, sow in the lives of people without faces or in communal places where public offerings and donations are collected. What this means is, give to the people that cannot compensate for your kindness. Whereas, give the people in your lives what you can do away with. Be it sympathy, respect, finances or food, do not expect it in return, for if a person does, he will surely sow seeds of hatred in his heart because 99% will not return the favour. God does not live where hate resides. Hatred does not in anyway correlate with his presence. If a man wants to love God, he will have to love freely without expectations.

Give without expectations, Love without ceasing.

1 John 2:9-10
“Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble.”

1 Corinthians 13:6-7
“Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”

His promises shows the level in which he loves us. Such pledges birth a certain wisdom, faith and peace beyond human understanding. However, to understand and actualise his word of honour, beneficiaries have to put in some effort. Efforts that are mostly centred around and retained with love.

1 John 4:18-19
“There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

God’s different promises to each individual, which is a show of his love is expected to quench any and every fear. His word if taken to heart extinguishes the fire of depression before it starts to build up. You cannot love God and fall into depression. Mental suffering and “the love of God experience” does not correlate. It is a though a fish surviving on land. This means, those who do not know their God suffer ignorance. A lack of knowledge which mostly leads to anxiety and then depression. When a man knows the promises of his father, acting on these revelations is how he shows his father that he trust him. Trust begets affection, and affection turns the eyes of the father.

Psalm 143:8
“Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I entrust my life.”