Are You Strong Enough to Stand In His Love?

I was thinking about a particular lyric in a Jennifer Knapp song Hold Me Now (about the woman caught in adultery – John 8): “She is strong enough to stand in my love”.

Are You Strong Enough to Stand in the Love of God?

I have been asking myself that question, am I strong enough to stand in His love?

I recently encountered a story of a woman who encountered God and his infinite love. She says she was so drawn to his love and experienced it so fully and completely it “devastated her” in the most wonderful blissful sense possible. She trusted so completely. It was inspiring to hear her story

I want that.

I remember an occasion in a dream that I experienced his love like that.

The Dream:

It was simple really. I was just standing there looking at my dad. My brother was also present. As I looked at my dad I saw myself and my brother in him. We were the same. We were connected. Then God started to show me his love for my dad and started filling my heart with that love. The love grew and grew and grew and grew with such intensity it seemed to have no end in sight.

I willed myself to awaken when this infinite unconditional love seemed to never stop. I actually feared for my life. My ego felt very threatened.

At the time I hadn’t spoken to my dad for well over a year. I was bitter toward him for my parents divorce. I was also suffering miserably because of my unforgiveness.

Jesus set me free that night by the love he poured into me. Of course I forgave my Dad and I have loved him ever since. We talk every so often on the phone and enjoy a much improved relationship.

What I was pondering today was this:

What if I stayed in that love. What if I remained and let his Love “devastate me” as one woman reported happened to her? What if I was strong enough to remain in his love?

These kind of thoughts have been governing my thoughts and prayers lately. I have dared to trust and receive his love like never before. Try it yourself (but I suggest at least sitting or laying down first in case the Lord comes into your room and you fall – yes, I actually pray with this kind of expectation these days). Get alone and ask God to reveal his love for you. Say, “Lord Jesus I receive your love”. Say it again…

Lyrics:

From glass alabaster she poured out
The depths of her soul
Oh, foot of Christ would You wait
If her harlotry’s known?

Falls a tear to darken the dirt
Of humblest offerings to forgive the hurt
She is strong enough to stand in your love
I can hear her say

I am weak, I am poor
I’m broken Lord, but I’m Yours
Hold me now, hold me now

Let he without sin
Cast the first stone if you will
To say that my bride isn’t worth
Half the blood that I’ve spilled

Point your finger and laugh if you choose to say
My beloved is borrowed and used
She is strong enough to stand in my love
I can hear her say

I am weak, I am poor
I’m broken Lord, but I’m Yours
Hold me now, hold me now

Song inspired in part by:

John 8
New Living Translation (NLT)
A Woman Caught in Adultery

“Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives, 2 but early the next morning he was back again at the Temple. A crowd soon gathered, and he sat down and taught them. 3 As he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd.

4 “Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?”

6 They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger. 7 They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” 8 Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust.

9 When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman. 10 Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?”

11 “No, Lord,” she said.

And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”