Bask in the fierce love of God
‘…keep yourselves in the love of God…’ — Jude 1:21 (ESV)
‘The sun is the great physician and, by basking in his beams, we find healing beneath his wings. It is even thus with the love of God, “Keep yourselves in it,” sun yourselves in it all day long.’ — C.H. Spurgeon, A Weighty Charge (sermon no. 1286)
This week, in homes and offices and beer gardens all over the UK, across iced lattes and cold pints, this most British of phrases has been uttered thousands of times:
“Bit hot, innit?”
Where I am in Bristol, it hasn’t just been hot—it’s been fiercely hot. Multiple-T-shirt-changes-a-day hot. Never have I been more thankful to work from an air conditioned office.
I can already feel the inevitable eye-rolls from our international readers…
But what I love most about summer is how the sunshine makes a city come alive.
The buzz as people flock to the parks and pubs and their nearest body of water. Early morning runs. Long, care-free evenings with friends.
Sunshine is life-giving. Not just on a fundamental and biological level—think photosynthesis and circadian rhythms—but also on an emotional and psychological level. No wonder our exposure to sunshine is connected to increased serotonin production.
The sun brings out the best in people. We feel happier. More like ourselves. We come alive.
A lot like the love of God.
Basking in God’s love
It’s no surprise that the Psalmist looks to the sun as he reaches for an image of God’s power, grace and glory:
‘For the LORD God is our sun and our shield. He gives us grace and glory. The LORD will withhold no good thing from those who do what is right.’ — Psalm 84:11
God, like the sun, is the source of light and life. But the glory of the sun—the giant ball of hydrogen and helium at the heart of our solar system—is just a faint reflection of the glory of its Creator.
Nothing compares to the blazing fire of His holiness.
Nothing outshines the radiant light of His glory, grace and goodness.
Nothing matches the fierce heat of His love.
The thing is, the sun isn’t just an astronomical object that we observe. We feel its effects. We don’t just see the sun—we enjoy it, we bask in it, we live in its warmth and light.
So it is with the love of God.
God’s love is not just some theological concept that we think about or study. It is the essence of who He is: ‘God is love’, says John, ‘and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them’ (1 John 4:16).
It’s for that reason that Paul prays, in Ephesians 3, that God’s people would not only know God’s great love, but that they would it experience it—that they would be filled with the fullness of His life:
‘And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.’ — Ephesians 3:18–19
Spurgeon, in his sermon on Jude 1:21 which opened this email, speaks of what it means to live in the sunshine of this love—how this love transforms us:
‘When the soul is filled with the love of Christ, it seems lifted beyond ordinary manhood. It burns with holy fire and, as it glows, it mounts on wings of flames and soars towards Heaven!’
When we have known and experienced God’s love for us—a love which He pours into our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5)—we cannot help but be changed by it.
As we bask in the reality and wonder of this love, we come fully alive. God’s love is the sunrise that wakes our sleeping souls to worship. It is the heat that warms our cold hearts with joy. It is the light which dispels the darkness in our lives. It is the blazing fire that purifies us from sin.
The radiance of God’s love draws us out from ourselves, compelling us to tell the world about all that Christ has done for us.
The question we need to ask ourselves is this—if we know God’s love, how do we keep ourselves in it?
How do we enjoy and live in the sunshine of His love each and every moment of our lives?
Keeping in God’s love
Spurgeon concludes his sermon with a few practical ways to keep ourselves in the sunshine of God’s love.
First of all, endeavour to be full of God’s love at this present moment.
What does Spurgeon mean? That we should make it our aim, each and every day, to lay hold of more and more of God’s love for us.
Wonderfully, in Christ, we already have access to the infinite riches of God’s love, but so often we fall short of experiencing all that is ours in Him. God wants us to be filled with His fullness (Ephesians 3:16–19)!
So, we shouldn’t be content simply with a little bit of God’s love—instead, says Spurgeon, ‘Store it up, fill your soul full of it as a man would fill his storehouses and granary if he knew that a dearth would be in the land.’
Desire God’s love, confident that His desire is to fill you with His life and power. Ask for more of it in the power of the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5). Surrender yourself to God, and allow Him to fill you to overflowing.
Second, avoid anything that would dampen your love.
Run from sin. Throw off everything that distracts you from loving God and living in His love (Hebrews 12:1). Ruthlessly eliminate those things that pull your heart from God and on to the world. ‘You have little enough of the love of God in your souls,’ says Spurgeon, ‘you do not need to pour cold water on it by emptying trashy novels upon it.’
Finally, seek the means of grace that God has given you to enjoy His love.
‘Do not neglect the hearing of the Word, nor the reading of it in private, nor secret prayer, nor the assembling of yourselves together. Come often to the Lord's Table,’ says Spurgeon.
In a world that is cold and dark—a world that threatens to overshadow and make us doubt God’s love for us—we keep ourselves in the light and heat of this love by seeking the means of grace that God has given us.
We open God’s Word, where we discover the riches of His love.
We meditate daily on the reality of the gospel.
We come to Him in prayer and abide in His loving presence.
We gather with other believers, and we share the bread and wine which reminds us of Christ’s sacrificial love for us.
Today, don’t just think about God’s love—bask in it. Delight in it. This is what you were made for. This is the only place where true joy, peace and satisfaction is found.
Come alive in the sunshine of God’s love for you, and keep yourself in it, as Spurgeon encourages us:
‘You are in God's love, continue in it, grow towards it, keep yourselves in it! Your Father loves you. Do not, like the Prodigal, go away from that love, or forget it, or slight it, or grieve it. Enjoy it, be warmed by it and be sanctified by it evermore.’
Love,
Mike