Saturday, June 30, 2018

Deeper Still


“There is no pit so deep, that God's love is not deeper still.” ~ Corrie Ten Boom


Extraordinary Times

The above quote from Corrie Ten Boom came to mind this morning and it made me think about how glad I am that I didn’t have to experience what she went through. How dismal to live in a country taken over by Nazi Germany. Sent to a concentration camp for hiding Jews, she lost both her father and sister in the process. And yet of those experiences she says, “God’s love is deeper still.” This thought along with her life and ministry challenge my thinking—if in fact, I dare to think about the implications at all.


Pursuit of Love

But if I choose to think about the relationship between suffering and God's love, I might ask which comes first— God's love that we might prepare for adversity, or adversity so that we might experience his love in a deeper way. Perhaps, however, neither are the right question.

1 Corinthians 14:1 tells us to pursue love—that is, "pursue with all haste ("chasing" after), earnestly desiring to overtake (apprehend)." In addition, 1 Corinthians 16:14 tells us to do everything in love. So while it's true that his love runs deeper than our suffering, experiencing God's love is not dependent upon a "pitiful" experience (pardon the pun). Love is to be pursued at all costs and in all situations!

Somehow, we have become more need-oriented then love-driven. It's not that we should not reach out when in crisis, but our relationship with the Father must extend beyond our need for intervention. While we do find multiple examples of David crying out for help in times of adversity, we also know him as a man already after God's own heart—already pursuing the love of God.

If it is true that pain and suffering predominately motivate our relationship with God, it can train us to see him only as a rescuer, and ourselves as children worthy of attention only when we're hurt. Pain and suffering become our only tie to his presence.


Measuring Up

It’s often been noted that we view life through the filters of our beliefs. Some, it is said, see life through "rose-colored glasses,” while some see only the negative around them. Those same filters affect our judgements and we come to conclusions based on our past experiences. Often, that's how we measure life, and we do so for self protection. We are self-preservationists doing our best to avoid the pitfalls of life.

In the midst of all that, how do we allow the Spirit of Christ within us to begin to rise above our tendency towards self-preservation? How can we begin to stretch outside of ourselves, pursuing God’s love—love that is selfless and that extends to others?  


The Want To

“…When you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” (John 21:18 NIV) 

Jesus gave Peter a taste of what was ahead for him. What would you do if Jesus said that to you? I not only avoid places I don’t want to go, but I am anxious to leave my current discomfort behind. Are you that way too? And when we're in that pit, is it our experience that God’s love actually turns out to be deeper still as Corrie Ten Boom suggests? If so, how does all this work?


Moving Beyond

In the midst of great opposition, what drove the disciples to pray for boldness that they would push themselves further into adversity (Acts 4:23-31)? What compelled Paul towards Jerusalem knowing what awaited him there (Acts 21:13)? What within us challenges us to bust out of our cocoons of relative safety? When do we cease living our lives with us at the center?

How do we go about pursuing the love of God and what he intends for us?


The Joy Set Before Us

Religion teaches us that perseverance, sacrifice, and self-discipline alone bring spiritual success. The fact is that those who live by them alone, also die by them. But instead of mere determination, Jesus set joy before him so that he might endure the cross (Hebrews 12:12).

While love is the greatest of the holy triad—faith, hope, and love (1 Corinthians 13:13), the pearl of the trifecta of the kingdom—righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit, is joy (Romans 14:17).

While love must be pursued, joy must be considered:

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." (James 1:2-4 NIV)

James says that perseverance is produced by the testing of our faith, within the context of joy. Joy is an attribute of knowing God and knowing him to be faithful. Joy is not only defined as gladness, but also as the awareness of the source of that joy, specifically the grace and favor of God. We know who he his, so we know he is with us through our trials.


Fullness

Corrie Ten Boom suggests that, among other things, the pit helps us to measure God's immeasurable love which surpasses the parameters of the pit and surpasses knowledge itself.

“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.” (Ephesians 3:16-19 NIV)

Although we may be in a pit, a container and place of dispair, we're actually dealing with the places within us. It's within ourselves that we discover the love already shed abroad in our hearts (Romans 5:5)—that place where we’ve already been made one with him (1 Corinthians 1:16). 

"...You greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith...Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy." (1 Peter 1:6-8 NIV)

His love is deeper still!

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