The God Who Hears: 7 Days in Paul's Prayers From PrisonSample

Day 4: It’s Beyond Me

We live in strange times, don’t we? On the one hand, because of computerization, globalization, and innovation, not since the world began has its people had access to so much knowledge about so many things.

As our knowledge increases, we realize that what we thought were facts are not. This can be unsettling! Attributed to economist Fritz Machlup, the term half-life of knowledge is the time that passes before half the knowledge or facts in a particular area are made obsolete or are superseded by new knowledge or facts.* As our knowledge explodes, facts change. And that’s why we now know the earth isn’t flat, smoking is bad for you, and Pluto isn’t a planet. Did you know a swallowed piece of gum doesn’t take seven years to digest?**

But we can be sure of one thing about God, and as strange as this sounds, it’s also one thing we can never know about him. It’s expressed in what Bible scholars rightly call an oxymoron and found in Paul’s words in Ephesians 3:19. He says he prays that God will give the church at Ephesus the power to “know this love [of Christ] that surpasses knowledge.”

We know that Jesus loves us, although we can’t grasp just how great that love is. But how can we understand anything about his love if it’s beyond our human knowledge? Furthermore, how are we supposed to know how much he loves us?

I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus loves me, but I also know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I don’t know how much he loves me. It’s beyond me because of who he is and how he loves. And it’s so unlike any other love we will ever experience. For example, I love my wife, but I’m not love, and I’m certainly not always as loving toward her or loveable as I should be. But Jesus is love, and he’s always loving and loveable.

And so we should pray that we will experience the great love of Jesus even when we can’t fully comprehend it nor how much he loves us with our minds, no matter how fast earthly knowledge increases. We can never truly understand God’s love for us or how much he loves us. It’s forever beyond us.

That’s true even though the New Living Translation of the Bible uses these words for 1 John 4:9: “God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him.”

Recognizing and accepting the miraculous gift of salvation is the beginning of knowing how much God loves us.

I know I don’t love God anywhere near as much as he loves me, and in this case, ignorance is bliss. It is wonderful to consider Jesus' love for us - how wide, long, deep, and high we cannot fully comprehend it!

“Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so,” but not even the Bible fully expresses how much he loves us. God’s love is still beyond human description and comprehension, and that fact alone should make us fall more in love with him every day.

Sometimes, you may doubt the wisdom of God, the works of God, and the ways of God, but never doubt the love of the God who hears us. He loves you more than you will ever know!

Lord Jesus, thank you for loving me with a love I will never fully comprehend because although your love may surpass my mind, I know it will never bypass my heart. Amen.

*Mark Griffin, “How Fast Is Knowledge Doubling?” Lodestar Solutions, February 12, 2021, https://lode- starsolutions.com/keeping-up-with-the-surge-of-information-and-human-knowledge/.

**Krista Carothers, “25 Facts You Learned in School That Are No Longer True,” Reader’s Digest, December 9, 2022, https://www.rd.com/list/facts-you-learned-no-longer-true/.