Deep calls to deep at the sound of Your waterfalls;
All Your breakers and Your waves have rolled over me.
The LORD will command His lovingkindness in the daytime;
And His song will be with me in the night,
A prayer to the God of my life.
Psalm 42:7-8 NASB
During the month of November here in the US, we often turn our thoughts toward things we are grateful for simply because we celebrate a day of Thanksgiving. If I could only be thankful for one thing, you know what that one thing would be? The love of God!
When I was bound up in sin, I often felt overwhelmed…like when trapped in the surge of a wave in a stormy sea. As soon as I felt I had found my footing, another wave of temptation and failure would wash over me, and I would struggle all over again. Wave after wave…wave upon wave…of shame and self-hatred kept me from ever getting to shore…to safety.
I found it difficult - impossible - to believe someone could love me. So trapped in the cycle of waves of the lies of the enemy was I that escape seemed always just out of reach. So incredible was this constant bombardment of waves that I decided I could end it all once and for all…by taking my own life. Deciding to asphyxiate myself, I turned on a gas heater and did not light the flame…but after a few minutes, fear overcame me and I turned off the gas…and went right back into the same old cycle of sin…of believing the lies of the enemy.
Soon after, I hit rock bottom. Just gave into the waves and was swept out into the sea of hopelessness, beyond help. Unlovable. Completely self-focused. I gave up and gave into the waves, going wherever they took me…until those waves were met by a tsunami.
That tsunami was the love of God. Like a wave of pure truth, God’s love hit me right where I was and swept me into a brand new identity. In the moment I got honest about my need for rescue and my need for truth - for something real to hold on to for my sanity - God’s love reached me in the depths of my despair and pulled me up and onto solid ground. Waves were still there…but they were not the same as before.
A wave of God’s loved rolled over me in that moment and said, “Your sin is not too vile for me to forgive.”
Before I could even fully apprehend how good that wave felt, I was hit by another one that said, “I’ve been searching for you for your entire life.”
Soon, wave upon wave of God’s love came rolling over me, yet I never felt so safe in all my life! One wave said, “I love you right where you are and I love you enough to not leave you there.”
Another wave said, “I have washed away your past and have redeemed you from every failure and will wash away even your regrets.”
No sooner would I recover from the goodness of one wave than I would be hit by yet another and another and another! Waves that spoke healing and guidance and forgiveness and mercy and mental stability and emotional security and waves that opened my eyes to the reality that I had been lied to my whole life…but that the waves of God’s love - truth - could set me free from anything!
Like an ocean of endless waves, they keep coming over me…waves of God’s love. Waves that sing songs of deliverance to me through the night. Waves that remind me I am never alone. Waves that show me the powerful love of God so great it would not waste any part of my life…even my failures.
Here are a few more waves directly from God’s Word to us:
A wave so massive it covers all my sin…
Hatred stirs up strife,
But love covers all transgressions.
Proverbs 10:12 NASB
The end of all things is near; therefore, be of sound judgment and sober [spirit] for the purpose of prayer. Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins. 1 Peter 4:7-8 NASB
A wave that tells me I was worth His very life…
"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” John 3:16 NASB
A wave that tells me I was wanted and that I have a specific purpose and destiny…
'For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.’ Jeremiah 29:11 NASB
The waves of God’s love are always rolling over us. We can either forget they are there or we can choose to not believe they are there. I choose to believe - even when waves of illness wrack my physical body…even when strife raises its ugly head…even when bad things happen to good people…even when the world thinks it gets to define what love is…even when I don’t feel anything. I simply step into the continual waves of God’s love for me and allow Him to consume me with the ride of a lifetime with Him!
Of course, there are tons of tangible ways God’s love rolls over me in waves…
A faithful, adoring, supportive, always-ready-to-love-me wife…
Nine amazing children and their spouses who constantly shower me with love…
Eleven grandchildren who roll over me with the innocence of loving me just because I exist…
Friends literally all around the world who fight the good fight of faith with me and for me…
The love of God is both Solid Rock on which to stand and incredible wave upon massive wave of His love for me. It is the only place in our existence where we get to live a beautiful paradox…being knocked off our feet of self-centeredness by wave after wave of His amazing love and yet always standing firm and safe on the Solid Rock and foundation of Jesus Christ.
I say to the God Who loves me like that, “Sweep over me, Father. I want to be swept over and carried away by the very essence of Who You are within the boundless, depths of the ocean of your love standing firmly on the Solid Rock of Jesus Christ…”
Dennis Jernigan
Picture courtesy of https://pixabay.com/photos/wave-water-surf-ocean-sea-spray-3473335/
For more on this topic, listen to this episode of The Dennis Jernigan Podcast at http://podcast.dennisjernigan.com/e/sweep-over-me/