Did you know you can be soaked in love? So filled up that a bump against you, gushes out lovely grace? Have you ever met anyone like that?
The thing about sponges
I’m thinking about sponges. They can hold an awful lot of water. That’s what they’re for after all, and they graciously absorb all the liquid and distribute it where needed.
Sometimes I’m a dry sponge. Not very flexible. Not very yielding. Not very full of the milk of human kindness.
I was at a conference recently where a speaker shared a personal challenge she’d given someone. She had asked this woman to spend ten uninterrupted minutes a day meditating on how much God loved her.
Ten minutes is a long time! But can you imagine how much this could change your perspective for the rest of the day? I know soaking in that love completely empowers me to love others. To smile. To be friendly. To be kind.
Maybe you didn’t know that God’s love is available to you. I was thirty years old, had been raised in a Christian family, been going to church forever before I actually felt Christ’s love in a real way. God’s love is transformative! Nothing looks the same after you feel his love and experience him!
But even so, I get busy and dry up. The good news is that there’s still hope for me! My heart was created to be filled up with Jesus and it naturally absorbs all the love he pours into me when I soak in his presence. But did you know that a wet sponge can actually hold more water than a dry sponge! That’s incredible, but also a spiritual truth! The more love of God I’ve soaked in, the more I can absorb! Remarkable!
Everyday love soaking
That’s why a daily ten minute soaking sounds like such a good idea!
Look at this verse from the gospel of John.
I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love
John 15:9-10
That’s the key to love and obedience – remaining in that love. That means a constant lifeline to Jesus. You can read the whole chapter in John 15 to get the picture of Jesus as a vine and we are the branches. Disconnecting from Jesus, we cease to thrive. We dry up.
God wants you to know that he loves you. Yes, you might say, I got the memo. John 3:16, right? But he doesn’t want you to just know that with your head, he wants you to feel his love. To soak in his love. To let his love transform the way you think and live and act.
How much would your life be healed by spending ten minutes a day soaking in Jesus’ love?
See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
1 John 3:1
As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.The life of mortals is like grass, they flourish like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more. But from everlasting to everlasting the LORD’s love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children’s children—with those who keep his covenant and remember to obey his precepts.
Psalm 103:13-18
The Lord is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and rich in love.
The LORD is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made.
Psalm 145:8-9
Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me.
Isaiah 49:15-16
Where to start?
How can you start on 10 minutes a day love soaks? Take the time to reflect on these verses. Talk to God in prayer. Maybe there is a hymn or worship song that really ministers God’s love to you? Spend some time reflecting on the words of that song and how they connect you to Jesus. The Bible is God’s love story to humanity, all about how he wanted us, he created us, he let us have freedom, and he rescued us from the consequences of our wrong choices. How he is still wanting us, still seeking us, still loving us and offering a way out of the messes we have made.
A personal example
You know, reflecting on God’s love the other day took me to an unexpected place! God dropped into my head the title of a song by Adele. I was aware of the song, but not very familiar with the lyrics, but I knew that the title was straight from God’s heart to my own, “Make You Feel My Love”. The Lord doesn’t just want me to theologically understand the love of God, he wants me to experience his love and feel his presence. As I listened to the words of this song, I was overwhelmed by how true it is of God’s love for us.
Verses to soak in
Here are some verses I’ve selected to get you started. Don’t try to do them all in one day, but really soak in the realization of each one.
God is so good to us. His love is unending. “Your love, Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies.” Psalm 36:5.
