Something happens in your life when you have a personal encounter with God’s love. Something that changes you.

I’m sure you know that God loves you. But do you only know that on a surface level?

For some, it’s a mere blanket statement of faith – nothing more than a thing you say because it’s what everyone else says. “Jesus loves me this I know – for the Bible tells me so.” But God wants his love to reach you in a deep, personal way to the core of your identity. More than just because the Bible tells you so, but because you’ve personally experienced his love. What God has for you is this, “Jesus loves me this I know – for he met me in my soul.”

Before you are anything else, you are loved by God. Before you are pretty enough, smart enough, or good enough in any way, you are LOVED BY GOD. Before the first thing you did right or after the last thing you got wrong, you are loved by God. Your mere existence proves the fact of his love for you.

But because you’ve had his love every day of your life whether you acknowledged it or not, maybe it’s just become ordinary and unimpressive to you. Sure, I’m loved by God – but what about these bills? Yeah, I have God’s love, but what about all the things I don’t seem to have right now? What about this mess? What about this problem? What about next month? God’s love seems irrelevant in my real life of real struggles.

Really, what does God’s love do for you? Well, besides the fact that his love for you created you, gives you breath, saves your soul, and gives you a promised eternity in paradise … there’s more. More for your real life right here today.

Satan can’t take away the fact that God’s love gives you life. He can’t cancel your promised destiny in heaven. But what Satan can actively do is make your world so busy, so loud, and so fussy with absolute nonsense that you forfeit the power of God’s love here and now. And then here you are walking around so totally loved by a God who holds all the power in the world, and totally unaware of how his love can radically change your life TODAY.

Yes, today. God’s love can change your experience in this day of life. God’s love can open your eyes to what you’ve never seen before. God’s love can change your thoughts and fill your entire existence with peace and joy. God’s love can supernaturally strengthen you to do things you’ve never ever been able to do before.

That’s what the enemy doesn’t want you to know. Satan wants to keep you stuck in your pit of darkness, your overwhelm of sadness, your little hell of stress and worry. Why? Because there you are ineffective to share the light of Jesus. There you are just another soul trudging through the existence of life waiting for it all to be over.

Wait – has the enemy of your soul tricked you into living like that? If so, recognize at the core of his trickery is the web of lies from the pits of hell telling you that you’re not REALLY loved by God. His lies tell you that you’re just one of millions and millions of people and life is just happening to you. His lies tell you you’re not really important to the creator of the Universe and there’s no divine power over the details of your days. His lies tell you your prayers have no power, you don’t really hear from the Holy Spirit, and God Almighty is a little too busy to constantly be caring about you.

Hmmmm – you’ve heard those lies, haven’t you? Have you started to believe them?

How do you overcome a lie? WITH TRUTH! Here’s the truth from God’s word.

Ephesians 3:19, “May you experience the LOVE OF CHRIST, though it I too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.”

This is the scripture directly after yesterday’s verse giving us the measurements of God’s love through the cross. Remember, we can look at the cross and know how WIDE God’s love is, how LONG God’s love is, how HIGH God’s love is and how DEEP God’s love is. But it’s not enough to just know about these measurements of love through the cross, you must EXPERIENCE THIS LOVE.

No you will never fully understand it, but you can still experience it. You will never have the right words to express his love, but you will feel it deep within your soul when you encounter it. Jesus loves me this I know, for he met me in my soul.

May you EXPERIENCE the love of Christ. The Greek word translated into ‘experience’ in this scripture is ginōskō. This is a word for knowing firsthand after a personal encounter. It’s deeper than knowing because you were taught or told – it’s a knowing because you’ve experienced it. It’s a shift from “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so” – to – “Jesus loves me this I know, for he met me in my soul.” It’s a shift from “I know God loves me”, to “I have BEEN loved by God in a way that changed me.”

How does God’s love change you? It completes you. It fills that hole that absolutely nothing else can. You can achieve everything you’ve ever wanted to achieve, and still you need God’s love. You can have purely wonderful relationships all around you, and still you need God’s love. You can have the perfect body to include the hair, the clothes, the eyes, the smile, absolutely all the things, and you will still need God’s love. You can have everyone’s approval and applause, and you will still feel a void within – a void that is only filled by God’s love. You can have everything – and everything will never be enough, without God’s love.

And here’s why – Completeness comes from experiencing the love of God through Jesus. Again, look at our scripture, “May you EXPERIENCE the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. THEN you will be made COMPLETE with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.” The answer for your emptiness is the love of Jesus. The solution for your longing is the love of Jesus. Yes, that wide, long, high and deep love represented through the cross. Have you experienced his love for you?

Oh how I pray that you would be caught by God and completely swept away in his love. I can’t give you a formula for experiencing that. I can’t tell you, go to this exact place, pray this exact prayer, wait for 5 minutes, then his love will meet you and change everything. It’s simply not like that. God’s love meets us each in different ways at different times.

I specifically remember the first time I experienced God’s love on this level. It was at one of my worst moments. A moment where I was utterly disappointed and broken by the way my steps of faith had been rewarded by more hardship. I had grown angry and bitter in the hardship, convinced God has messed up. Sitting on my couch that day, I wrestled with my true feelings and tried to suppress it all. My husband said, “Pamela, why don’t you just say it – you’re mad at God.” I had never been told I could have that feeling and still be loved. I never knew God was bigger than my disappointment. I seriously thought I would be struck by lightning if I told God how I really felt about the crap happening in our life. But in that moment I just couldn’t hold it back any longer. I screamed out, “God, I can’t believe this is how you repay faithfulness. I can’t believe this is your good plan for me. I’m so angry right now.”

And then I held my breath waiting for the withdrawal of his presence. But instead of being struck by lightening, I was struck by his unfailing love. I personally experienced the LOVE of CHRIST there in my weakest and most vulnerable moment. He didn’t turn away from me, instead I could feel his peace fill me. In unspeakable ways, I was loved like I had never been loved before. In my most unlovable moment, I was fully loved.

That was a turning point for me. I stepped out of being the victim and I harnessed new power. Yes, power. Power that comes from God when you experience the love of Christ. Things didn’t instantly change for us, but I can look back and see exactly how God was working for good in every detail. Our struggles prepared us for the outpouring of blessings to come. We came out stronger, more grounded, stripped down of all the excess, and our hands were open to receive what God had for us next.

Honesty allows us to experience God’s life changing love. You don’t have to pretend you’re okay. You don’t have to play along like you’re happy about the way things turned out. You don’t have to smile your way through the pain. God can handle your honest emotions – but you have to surrender them to him. When you do, you’ll be met with a love you could never earn. And that love changes everything.

Paul writes that once you experience the true measure of God’s love that is wide, long, high and deep, “THEN YOU WILL BE MADE COMPLETE WITH ALL THE FULLNESS OF LIFE AND POWER THAT COMES FROM GOD.”

To have fullness means you lack nothing that is needed – you are perfectly filled. Filled with LIFE and POWER.

Have you ever met someone that is filled with LIFE and POWER? They just glow different don’t they? There’s something magnetic about them. That’s the power of Jesus’ love within them. If you want it, it’s available to you too.

You’ll never understand this love, but you can live in it. Faith is required here. Surre...