A Love Like This

Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good. (Romans8:26-28)

Lauren Daigle sings a song I just love - not because of the beauty of her voice - even though she has a great voice. I love it because of the love of her heart - the love she has for her Lord! The song? It is "Love Like This". Indulge me this morning as I share those words with you - allow them to minister to your heart as much as they minister to mine:

When I am a wasteland You are the water. When I am the winter You are the fire that burns. When I am a long night You are the sunrise. When I am the desert You are the river that turns to find me. 
What have I done to deserve love like this?
What have I done to deserve love like this?
Your voice like a whisper breaking the silence. You say there's a treasure and You look till You find it. 
You search to find me. 
What have I done to deserve love like this?
What have I done to deserve love like this?
I cannot earn what You so freely give.....
What have I done to deserve love like this?

I hope you are just reveling in his love right now as you have read those words and allowed them to minister to your heart as much as they do mine. At some point in our lives, we all feel like our lives are a bit of a wasteland, but at about the time we are the driest and the thirstiest, isn't that just the time he comes to bring the deep refreshing we so desperately desire? In times when all seems to be surrounding us and closing us in like the hard frozen surface of the lake, he is there with the fire of his Spirit to ensure we aren't 'locked into' that place for long. How many long nights have you experienced lately, my friends? Don't lose hope - for it is just about the dawning of his deliverance and his power to rescue from the midst of all that darkness and worry. 

It doesn't matter we don't know how to pray in those wasteland, cold, or dark places - God knows the voice of his Spirit within you. Cry out as only he can give release to those words that need to be spoken. It may come in the form of groans, tears, or even words that just tell him you don't understand. That isn't a problem - he understands them all even better than we do ourselves! What have we done to deserve a love like his? Nothing - absolutely nothing! We might be very 'religious' people, but when the wasteland, dry, cold, or dark places envelop us, how does that 'religion' hold up in the moment of our worst? If you find yourself saying it doesn't really, then perhaps it is time to cry out to God to give you a new perspective on his intense and ever-present love. 

We are all in need of his love - none of us has 'just enough' - we crave for more, don't we? Why? Our hearts are made to be filled not once, but repeatedly - not to the top, but to the overflowing! I wonder if the wasteland experiences are to help us realize the extreme abundance of his love... I ponder upon the idea that the colder I become, the warmer his fire begins to burn, until the iciness of my heart is melted away... I consider the loneliness of the long night, dark and with shadows that seem to close in on me, recounting each time those times were the quietest I have been before him... Perhaps all of these are what makes us 'crave' even more of his grace and love. Maybe we just need to cry out - letting his Spirit begin to speak the words we want so desperately to express to him, but don't really understand. Just thinking....