How to Know God's Love

“To know the love of Christy which passeth knowledge? — Eph. iii. 19.

Do not say within thyself, I will not believe what I do not understand. There is a faculty in thee that passeth understanding. Thou hast a power which is higher than reason, and which sees what reason cannot see. Thy reason can only mount on the steps of an argument, but there is something in thee which flies to truth’s conclusion as the lark flies to the morning. Thou canst not weigh it, thou canst not measure it, thou canst not with accuracy even name it, yet it lifts thee into regions beyond thine understanding, it carries thee into worlds which transcend thy reason, it passeth the powers of knowledge.

There are two things which pass thy knowledge in the sphere of faith, two things which thou canst not know by the understanding — the peace of Christ and the love of Christ. All reason would say that their existence is impossible. How can a man have peace when the waters are swelling round him? how can a man be divinely loved ere he is yet divinely lovely? Yet the peace and the love alike come through shut doors; how they come we cannot tell, yet we feel that they are here. Thou knowest it is His peace by thy calm in storm; unrest could never have created rest. Thou knowest it is His love by thy want in affluence; the earth and the fulness thereof could never have made thy thirst for heaven. It is by thy longing for Him thou knowest that He longeth for thee. Thou couldst not have panted for Him if He had not panted for thee. Thy love for Him is to His love for thee what the sunlight on the sea is to the sunshine in the sky — a reflex, a mirror, a diffusion; thou art giving back the glory that has been cast upon the waters. In the attraction of thy life to Him, in the cleaving of thy heart to Him, in the soaring of thy spirit to Him, thou art told that He is near thee. In all that thou hast done and thought and suffered for His sake, in all that thou hast purposed and planned and achieved for His service, in every movement wherewith thy spirit has vibrated at the sound of His name, thou nearest the beating of His pulse for thee, thou knowest that He loves thee.