ENCOURAGED in Every Season: Rooted in Christ’s Love, Fully Known and Truly Loved (Part 7 of 12)
In this ENCOURAGED series, I am passionate about you knowing your Faithful God in every season of your life. As you seek Jesus daily, I desire you to grow in your faith and relationship with Him so you can joyfully embrace Him as your true Encourager and proclaim His faithfulness to others. I pray that you would hold on to the hope and peace found only in Christ and learn how to embrace whatever season you are presently in your life, bringing glory to Him.
Continuing with the ENCOURAGED acrostic, the seventh practical way to be encouraged is to remain:
R~ ROOTED IN CHRIST’S LOVE, FULLY KNOWN AND TRULY LOVED
“I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3:17-19
Being rooted in Christ’s love, fully known and truly loved, is the ultimate calling upon our lives. This longing—to be fully known and greatly loved—is embedded deep within each of our hearts. In a world where we all desire acceptance, knowing that we are fully known—both inside and out—and truly loved unconditionally by Jesus can encourage our hearts, no matter what our circumstances.
Christ Himself is the ‘root’ of our love.
The love of Christ is a perfect love beyond human comprehension, beyond all knowledge. This love is one we cannot know or experience apart from Him, for this love exists only where He resides and dwells. Jesus is the Only One who truly knows us and loves us in this way.
Coming to Him in childlike faith, seeking to know Jesus and accepting His love, engrafts us and roots us into His love.
God’s Word beautifully shares this truth of Christ’s love with us and how personally we are known by our Omniscient Creator God.
“O Lord, You have searched me and You know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; You perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; You are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue You know it completely, O Lord. You hem me in—behind and before; You have laid Your Hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain” (Psalm 139:1-6).
Our all-knowing, ever-present God knows every detail of our lives.
- He has searched us and knows us.
- He knows when we sit and when we rise.
- He knows all our thoughts.
- He knows when we go and when we stay.
- He knows all our ways.
- He knows every word on our tongue before we even speak it.
- He knows what is behind us and what is before us.
- He knows us and has us in His loving care.
Additionally, God’s Word assures us that:
- He knows the number of hairs on our heads (Matthew 10:30).
- He knows every tear that falls (Psalm 56:8).
- He knows the secrets of our heart (Psalm 44:21).
- He knows the plans He has for us (Jeremiah 29:11).
- He knows all the days written in our lives before one of them came to be (Psalm 139:16).
- He knows our birthday and the day we will go be with Him forever.
- He knows ALL!
What divine mystery lies within that Truth and promise! That He knows us—all our likes and preferences, personalities, and strengths—and simultaneously sees right through us—all our sin, all our fears and doubts, all our weaknesses and insecurities, and yet loves us the same, unconditionally. All that is hidden—now exposed and laid bare before Him—does not keep us from His great love.
God’s overarching plan and will—purposed in Christ—was accomplished through Christ’s love demonstrated on the cross for us—His chosen. Having heard the Truth of the Gospel—that Jesus lived the perfect life of obedience we could not live, died the death we all deserve to die, and conquered death—and having believed this Truth, we are now rooted and established in His love forever, marked and sealed by His Spirit within us.
“If you confess with your mouth ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9).
Knowing this, why would we ever pursue a ‘lesser’ love?
Often, our love for self is greater.
Our love for self-promotion and self-exaltation, in addition to our own selfish desires and prideful heart, often overshadow our love for Christ. Even though the love of Christ is unfathomable beyond understanding, we choose to exchange this love for a ‘lesser’ love, which is actually no love at all.
What ‘lesser’ loves lure you away from Christ’s unfailing love for you?
However, as we are rooted and grounded in Christ’s love, God opens the eyes of our hearts to this irresistible love found only in Him, enabling us to see and behold just how wide, long, high, and deep His love is for us who believe. By His gift of grace and power at work within us, we behold, believe, and hold this love as precious, all to His glory and praise.
Like Paul, may we pray that God would reveal to our hearts this great love of Christ and that we would have the ability to grasp and know this love of Christ, that surpasses all.
Remembering that apart from God revealing Christ to us, we cannot know Jesus. As we seek to know Christ for ourselves, through intentional prayer and diligent study of His Word, may we ask for eyes to see the Truth of the Gospel—His gracious love, freely given to us.
As we truly come to know Jesus and be known by Him, then and only then, can we extend this perfect love of Christ to others.
“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!” (1 John 3:1).
Even when, we do not know or love Him, Jesus knows and loves us. Even now, we can be reconciled to Him, because of His great love for us. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8,9).
In light of this great love, may we live a life worthy of our calling—a life of one who is known and loved and extend this same gift of His love to others. Genuine joy and true love in Christ pours out and overflows from His Spirit within our hearts into the lives of others.
“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23).
Do you know Jesus Himself—the One who knows you fully and loves you truly?
How can knowing you are accepted in Christ, fully known and truly loved, enable you to love others with His love?
