The Love of God...to what do We Compare?

“. . . the love of the LORD . . .” Hosea 3:1 NKJV 

Believer, look back through all your experiences and think of the ways in which the Lord your God led you in your wilderness, as He led His people in the days of the Exodus—how He fed and clothed you every day, how He bore with your rudeness, how He put up with all your complaining and your longing for the meats of Egypt, how He opened the rock to supply you and fed you with manna that came down from heaven. Think of how His grace has been sufficient for you in all your troubles, how His blood has meant pardon to you in all your sins, how His rod and His staff have comforted you. After you have looked back on the “love of the LORD” in this way, let your faith look ahead to His love in the future—remember that Christ’s covenant and blood have more in them than the past. He who has loved and pardoned you will never stop loving and pardoning. He is Alpha, and he will be Omega; he is first, and he will be last. So think—when you have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death, you don’t need to fear evil, for He is with you. When you stand in the cold flood of the Jordan, you don’t need to fear, for death cannot separate you from His love. When you come into the mysteries of eternity, you don’t need to tremble, “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38–39 ESV). Now, Christian, isn’t your love refreshed? Doesn’t this make you love Jesus? Doesn’t a flight through the unlimited skies of love inflame your heart and compel you to delight yourself in the Lord your God? Surely as we meditate on “the love of the LORD,” our hearts will burn within us—and we will long to love Him more. - C.H. Spurgeon Morning and Evening 

Reading this, a song comes to mind. 

"The Love of God" by MercyMe

The love of God is greater far
Than tongue or pen can ever tell
It goes beyond the highest star
And reaches to the lowest hell
The guilty pair, bowed down with care
God gave His Son to win
His erring child He reconciled
And pardoned from his sin

Could we with ink the ocean fill
And were the skies of parchment made
Were every stalk on earth a quill
And every man a scribe by trade

To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry
Nor could the scroll contain the whole
Though stretched from sky to sky

Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah

O love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure
The saints' and angels' song

My friend you will never find what you are looking for in this world apart from God. 

The peace you long for, the joy that truly warms your heart can only come from a right relationship with Jesus. 

People spend trillions of dollars from schools to healthcare to vacations seeking what is available right in front of them. 

You aren't going to find peace within yourself from surgeries done to alter your physical appearance.  You will never find it immersed in reading countless books.  You will not find it in group protests.  It's never found anywhere outside of Jesus Christ.  The anger that pours forth from people at Christianity and even the Jewish people is there for one reason.  The sin that is theirs in their lives. God reminds them they have a sinful condition and they get angry at anyone who represents Him.

But my friend if you look at Christ, you will not find anger in return.  Though you mock Him, spit at Him, rage at Him, He...still...loves...you.

Though you have lived the most selfish, self-centered live imaginable, He still loves you.

Though you have done everything you can to provoke Him...His love for you has never changed.  He stretched out His hands and died for you.  He arose 3 days later from the dead showing the Universe that He is indeed God.  

If only you knew, my friend, the available love of Jesus that awaits you.  If only you would, for once, give that love a chance!  

The control you think you are losing, you would gladly give away, once you truly experienced His love for you. 

The longer that I live the more I wish I had learned some lessons of life earlier.  So that I could have had a richer experience in my life with Christ.  Regrets? That's my biggest one.  I wrote of the song "Dear Younger Me".  Oh if I could have imparted that one thing to my younger self it would be that.  Oh sure I could warn myself of things to come.  Things to avoid.  As the song says, but it's those choices that made me what I am right now.  Who is to say warnings would make it better?  Rather than warning my younger self I would encourage him to not give up so easily on myself when I really know that God is with me.  

The love of God for you my friend can and would be a life changer.  To take it and receive it and make it your own would do far more to your life than you can possibly imagine.  Of course I would say that right? 

Why yes.  Experience can be conveyed.  Advice offered.  But it's you who must decide if it's worth asking Jesus to save you.  His love is like no other.  If someone would make mention of great food or a great venue to experience that brought great joy to them you would consider it, wou you not?  

Peace...oh how the world clamors to find it.

We spend so much time, energy and effort seeking ways to bring what we think it is to life.  

Jesus said for any who are weak and weary to come to Him and He would give you rest.  Oh to stop struggling and to finally find what you are looking for.  

What you seek my friend is Jesus.  You just haven't taken the time to consider that He's been waiting your whole life to hear you ask.

His erring child He reconciled
And pardoned from his sin

Could we with ink the ocean fill
And were the skies of parchment made
Were every stalk on earth a quill
And every man a scribe by trade

To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry
Nor could the scroll contain the whole
Though stretched from sky to sky