A few years ago, a friend told me that he’d recently experienced a major breakthrough in his relationship with the Lord. He told me that he’d just realized how much God loved him, and that when I really understood how much God loved me that it would totally revolutionize my relationship with the Lord.

I walked away from the conversation thinking that he was being a little over-dramatic (as we all know boys can tend to be). I’d been a Christian since I was four years old and had probably sung “Jesus loves me” about 800 times. I knew God loved me. But, because he was a good friend, and I respected what he had to say about spiritual things, I decided to give it a try.

I prayed that God would show me how much He loved me. Over the course of that summer, God began to show me all of the ways He’d been pursuing over the course of my entire life. He began to show me the different ways He’d loved me – as a perfect Father, a faithful Friend, and even as the Lover of my soul.

Even during hard times, He started to show me how He’d been faithful during those times, feeling compassion for me, and waiting for me to turn to Him and allow Him to heal those wounds.

My friend had been right. Understanding God’s love in this new way illuminated my walk with Him. Since that summer, there are times that I don’t feel God’s love quite the same way I felt it then, but God continually shows me ways He’s protected me, provided for me, and pursued me. Even knowing what I know about His love, I don’t think I’ll fully comprehend how amazing His love is for me until He returns.

One of my favorite prayers in the Bible is Ephesians 3. Paul had lived in Ephesus for about three years and developed a relationship with the Christians there. He had many friends in the church and prayed this prayer for them:

“¹⁴For this reason I kneel before the Father, ¹⁵from whom his whole family^[a] in heaven and on earth derives its name. ¹⁶I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, ¹⁷so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, ¹⁸may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, ¹⁹and to know this love that surpasses knowledge — that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:14-19, NIV).

It’s interesting to me that Paul prays that the Ephesian Christians would be rooted and grounded in love that they would be able “to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.” There are layers to God’s love.

Recently, my pastor described the love of God like treading water in the ocean. We’re enjoying the surface, and we have no idea how deep and wide His love is! No matter how long we hold our breath, we won’t be able to reach the bottom on our own. We won’t be able to swim to the other side of the ocean on our own. However, the part that we can see, feel, and understand seems so much bigger and amazing than we can comprehend.