Waves like these have an evocative echoing voice as they relentlessly but gently break on the shore. They speak of unending love vast as the ocean. They just keep on coming, sometimes softly rippling but other times surging in with great strength. The shore does nothing to earn the repeated caress. Sometimes the waves come in with a mighty display of power and other times it is in this more gentle but affirming way. The sea and the shore are made for each other. If this were to represent a relationship, it would seem to be all one way with the sea endlessly giving of itself – unconditional love. There is a parallel picture in which the shoreline replies with unconditional acceptance and the two become one. Some coastlines have large concrete walls to keep the waves out – even so, those mighty waves cannot be subdued. Like all metaphors, the illustration only works to a point. Would you say that God’s love seems unfelt by you? One thing the shore cannot do is to deny the power of the sea, even with any barrages that are put up. The sea’s impact cannot be denied and it will shape the shoreline – just so with God’s love in our lives.
- ‘I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant’ – Martin Luther King Jr
- ‘The greatest gift that you can give to others is the gift of unconditional love and acceptance’ – Brian Tracy
- ‘I thought I knew what love was before giving birth to my baby, but whatever I had experienced in the past paled in comparison to the utterly unconditional love I immediately felt for the little bundle I now held in my arms’ – Linda Thompson
- ‘Just knowing you don’t have the answers is a recipe for humility, openness, acceptance, forgiveness, and an eagerness to learn – and those are all good things’ – Dick Van Dyke
When a person first becomes open to God’s love, the Bible describes it as becoming ‘alive to God’ – it is life-changing. In history, when this happens in a nation it is described as an ‘Awakening’ – there are multiple examples of this: The First Great Awakening 1730s (associated with John Wesley, George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards), Wales 1904, Hebrides 1949 and then across the world many more since. People and communities change when this happens. Revival is somewhat different as this involves a church or a person being stirred anew towards love and worship of God when the Holy Spirit comes afresh. Both Awakenings and Revivals wane after a while – it is like when the tide turns and the waves go back to sea. These times of refreshing can return as people become once again aware of God’s unconditional love.
Taken to a personal level then – have you known a time of ‘awakening’ when you first felt alive to God? Perhaps the tide went out when life’s circumstances came along and that closeness to God diminished? Maybe you have sensed His presence afresh in a time of ‘personal revival’, knowing His love and presence anew. In both instances, the way to receive the ‘unconditional Love’ of God is with ‘unconditional acceptance’. John Wesley had a cold formal religious outlook until this happened to him, a time which he described as being ‘strangely warmed’. It changed his life and consequently the lives of many thousands were drawn to God for part of his unconditional acceptance was a desire to tell others what had happened to him. In 1748, a ‘slave trader’ named John Newton became aware of God’s love whilst he was at sea in a storm and called out to God for mercy. The ‘shores’ of his life were radically changed and he abandoned selling people into slavery. Instead, part of his unconditional acceptance was to write the hymn ‘Amazing Grace’, getting behind the abolition of slavery and becoming an Anglican Vicar. He had a personal awakening.
- ‘”A person is born physically of human parents, but is born spiritually of the Spirit. Do not be surprised because I tell you that you must all be born again. The wind blows wherever it wishes; you hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. It is like that with everyone who is born of the Spirit”’ – John 3:6-8
- ‘Soak me in your laundry and I’ll come out clean, scrub me and I’ll have a snow-white life. Tune me in to foot-tapping songs, set these once-broken bones to dancing. Don’t look too close for blemishes, give me a clean bill of health. God, make a fresh start in me, shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life. Don’t throw me out with the trash, or fail to breathe holiness in me. Bring me back from grey exile, put a fresh wind in my sails! Give me a job teaching rebels your ways so the lost can find their way home. Commute my death sentence, God, my salvation God, and I’ll sing anthems to your life-giving ways. Unbutton my lips, dear God; I’ll let loose with your praise’ – Psalm 51:7-13 The Message (Paraphrase)
- ‘If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies’ – Romans 8:31-33
- ‘I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth’ – Revelation 3:15-16
The loneliest place in the world is to feel unloved by anyone. The happiest is to know the love of God and the love of others. Knowing that God is for you and not against you is transformative. C S Lewis urged us to ‘make a choice’ rather than sitting on the fence which is a most uncomfortable place! To be or to become lukewarm to God’s love is unacceptable to Him for it is essentially to reject His love and His mercy.
An old hymn was written by William Rees during the Welsh Revival which describes God’s love as a vast ocean. Here is modern version by Matt Redman sung by Charis (Live) to enjoy and ask God to stir your heart:
If you want to understand the power of this love felt by John Newton, take a listen to his hymn ‘Amazing Grace’ in a modernised version sung by Lou Fellingham:
For more reading: https://connect4life.org.uk/c4l-boosters/barriers-and-breakthroughs/