The Father's LoveSample

BOUNDLESS DIMENSIONS OF TRUE LOVE

The Lord can seem so close at times and yet so far. He tells us that He loves us, yet at times He seems out of reach. We cry out, yet we are not sure if He has heard.

Read Psalm 63:3-4. If you can't declare this song of praise along with David, don't be discouraged. David has come to believe God's great love for him, and, by God's grace, in the midst of a desert he is able to deeply drink in God's love and fully receive it.

As we grow in our understanding of the great sacrifice that God our Father and Jesus our Savior have made, it enables us to comprehend the depth, breadth, length, and width of their love, walk in it, and allow it to overflow to those around us.

The Old Testament may be foreign to us, and the visuals graphic and perhaps gruesome, but in reading it we can see more clearly the sacrificial, specific, and spectacular love of our Lord. Read Leviticus 1 and Hebrews 9-10:1-18.

Take these truths to heart and ask the Lord to help you hear what can so easily be lost in translation. He really does care about all the crazy stuff that happens in our day: the nagging thoughts, the lonely nights, the broken hearts, even the minutia of everyday life. Remember His great sacrifice for you. And remember Jesus' words in Luke 12:6-7.

David is our example and our encouragement. He understood isolation, loneliness, and fear as a shepherd. He understood rejection and no doubt experienced fear of death as he hid from the vigilant pursuit of a jealous King Saul.

Life brings difficulty, isolation, and rejection; it can bring the desert right into your heart. Even when we are active members of a church, volunteering at preschool, or surrounded by family, we can experience a desolate place.

Like David, choose by faith to believe God's steadfast love and rest in it. God will accomplish this in your heart; you are to continue to seek earnestly after Him! Read Ephesians 3:14-21 and make Paul's prayer your own for yourself and those whom you love.

In the pattern of Romans 12:2, what is one Scripture from today that the Lord is using to renew your mind and transform your heart? Take this truth to heart and bring it to life throughout your day.