God’s love has been
poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to
us (Romans 5:5). The knowledge of
God’s love has been poured into the heart of every believer in Christ.
Three significant observations can be made from this verse:
1. The word for “poured
out” points to a large quantity.
It means an inundation.
God’s love has “flooded” our hearts.
2. The verb tense is “completed
action.”
The love of God having flooded our hearts fills our hearts
now. The comparison can be made to a
valley once it is flooded remains full of water. We should be living in a strong and abiding
sense of God’s love for us. I think the
issue for many is that of growing to realize His great love for us.
3. The instilling of the
knowledge of God’s love for us is part of the “regular ministry of the Holy
Spirit.”
Therefore since this is a part of the Holy Spirit’s constant
ministry and work within us, we should give great attention to it. Many have become preoccupied today with the
extraordinary, sporadic, non-universal ministries of the Spirit to the neglect of
the ordinary, constant, general ones. More
interest is shown for exciting expressions than for the Holy Spirit’s
ordinary work of giving peace, joy, hope, and love through the “inundation” in
our hearts of the knowledge of God’s love for us.
Yet the Spirit’s constant, ordinary work of love in our
hearts is much more important than the extraordinary. The Apostle Paul insists that without God’s
love it’s all worth nothing: If I speak with the eloquence of men and of
angels, but have no love, I become no more than blaring brass or crashing
cymbal. If I have the gift of foretelling the future and hold in my mind not
only all human knowledge but the very secrets of God, and if I also have that
absolute faith which can move mountains, but have no love, I amount to nothing
at all. If I dispose of all that I possess, yes, even if I give my own body to
be burned, but have no love, I achieve precisely nothing (1 Corinthians
13:1-3 Ph).
We must come to a fuller understanding of God’s love for
us. It benefits us to get more in touch
with God’s love for us. His love is with
us. We need to know it more.
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We live in a world where the word love is tossed about in general. It is spoken so often as though it were just an ordinary hello. You know, a quick hug and an "I love you." This message has made me stop and think not only about the word "love" but the many meanings of love. As I was reading the definitions in the dictionary I was overwhelmed with all the ways the word loved is described. From affection to sexual passion...and then I saw a meaning that was more powerful than all the others, "God's mercy and benevolence toward humans." God's mercy...an act of compassion and kind treatment. His benevolence...kind and charitable acts. Through this message and through what I've learned this morning I will never see love in the same light nor will I use it lightly. Father God, thank you for loving me with a pure and true love that is unending. A love that not only embraces me but provides mercy and kind acts that will guide me toward your presence. Teach me Father to love others in the way you love me. Help me to see that love is a precious gift and that without using it...it loses it's value. Plant in my mind the love you have for me so clearly that I will always be reminded that you are with me always. I ask all of these things in your precious son's name, Jesus. Amen
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