Extravagant Love

EXTRAVAGANT: Going beyond what is deserved or justifiable. Exceeding the bounds of reason. Spending much more than is necessary.

The Bible tells us how wide and deep Jesus’s love is, yet so many of us live as if we are not loved that way—though we want to believe. So, we struggle to live confidently and joyfully in who God says we are in Christ. There is a disconnect between what the Bible says about God’s extravagant love for us and what we feel and experience.   

I believe the odds are against us feeling Jesus’s exceedingly generous love. Why? Everything within us and in this world wants us to think otherwise—that God is distant and doesn’t care. There are strongholds in our minds and hearts that keep us from accepting the love of Christ. For me, feeling unloved and unworthy is easier and more comfortable than feeling loved. I can tell you all the ways I have been ignored, betrayed, and made to feel invisible, way more than I can tell you the times I felt special, lovable, and worthy.

But what if it is true that I have been ignored, betrayed, and made to feel invisible more than being celebrated and loved? What if the loneliness is real? What if the sting of pain after a divorce is the gift that keeps giving?

One thing I have had to get in my head once and for all is that the suffering I experience in relationships and by simply living on this earth is not an indication that God has withdrawn his love or doesn’t care. But the pain is real, so how do we KNOW without a shadow of a doubt that we are deeply and unconditionally loved by God—not for what we do but simply because we exist?

I believe the answer comes from the extra help God gives us so that we can even to begin to grasp a love that defies reason and merit. We have the privilege and honor to receive the Holy Spirit and have Him dwell in our hearts.

So, I have been asking the Holy Spirit to fill my mind and heart with Christ’s love, even when everything around me says that I don’t matter. When I think the world can go on just fine without me, the following verse reminds me that I am deeply loved.

Such Hope never disappoints or deludes or shames us, for God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Romans 5:5 (AMPC).

This verse tells me I cannot comprehend Christ’s love for me without help. Only the Holy Spirit can communicate a love from heaven—otherworldly, not of corruptible flesh, eternal love—the purest of love without even a hint of self-interest, one that is sacrificial, even willing to hang on a cross.

This verse begins with, “Such Hope never disappoints or deludes or shames us.” How many of us can say that our relationships never disappoint or delude or shame us? None of us. We are incapable of loving without a hint of self-interest. But this is where the love of God comes in—communicated to us through the Holy Spirit. The gift of heaven makes its home with our flesh, making it possible to know we are of great worth in God’s sight.

Romans 5:5 says the Holy Spirit is poured into our hearts. Why does the inspired Word of God use the word “pour?” I believe it conveys how eager God wants to give us his love. Think about what it means to pour something. Dictionary.com says the following:

POUR: an abundant or continuous flow or stream. to proceed in great quantity, to send a liquid flowing or falling, as from one container to another, or into over, or on something.

That sounds pretty extravagant to me.