The Grip Of the Love of Jesus

“Paul said that he was overpowered, subdued, and held as in a vise by “the love of Christ.” Very few of us really know what it means to be held in the grip of the love of God. We tend so often to be controlled simply by our own experience. The one thing that gripped and held Paul, to the exclusion of everything else, was the love of God. “The love of Christ compels us….” When you hear that coming from the life of a man or woman it is unmistakable. You will know that the Spirit of God is completely unhindered in that person’s life.”
https://utmost.org/the-compelling-majesty-of-his-power/

Oswald Chambers. Look at the description of the power and overwhelming force of the “love of Christ”. A vise. We are subdued. Overpowered. Notice that he says “very few” of us really knows what it means to be held in this grip. He also says that the “Spirit of God is completely unhindered in that person’s life.”  That means access to power. Supernatural power.

It’s my own non biblical scholar opinion that we need to work to experience and engage with this vise like grip of love. It is our responsibility. It’s on us. Every relationship on this planet requires effort.

You know what would be a good idea? Sit the two people down who are about to get married and tell them straight up that they need to be prepared like 18 year old soldiers storming a beach at IWO JIMA. There are going to be shells dropping all around them and machine gun bullets firing at them as they storm the beaches. The best chance for survival is to stick together. Marriage is hard and it requires effort and sacrifice.

Our relationship with Jesus is not as hard but it most certainly requires time and effort. Look at this excerpt from “Brave the Wave”,

1. It’s our responsibility to know and understand the breadth, width, depth, and vastness of the love that God and Jesus have
for us. Just because it’s beyond our comprehension doesn’t give us a pass.

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 NLT)

Notice the benefit of understanding this love. We’ll be made complete with the fullness of life and power. Our authentic selves
perhaps? Power comes from the experience of the love of Jesus.

Oswald Chambers is saying is that we are “controlled simply by our own experience.” What we need to do is swap experiences. What does he mean by “controlled by our experience?” If we think about our day to day kind of activities, most of our thought and waking life “experience” is tied to survival or distraction. That makes up the bulk of our time and effort.

If you are the head of the household and the primary earner you are focused on your job and being able to pay your bills. You have to take care of your family. If you are the mom, you have all the chores and responsibilities associated with making sure your children have what they need and taking care of the household. Both are full time jobs and are very tough. These are primary identity “experiences”. If these survival activities aren’t attended to, there would be chaos and disaster.

Once survival activities are taken care of,  then we have the “experience” of distraction. Down time. Whatever we do to blow off steam. Social media. Happy hour. Lunch with your girl friends. Hanging with family. So broken down, most of the time we are engaging in survival or distraction.

How in the world do we get to “experience” a “vise like, compelling, subduing” love of Jesus? Time. We set aside time every day. We make it a discipline. We make it a spiritual habit. We read the words of Jesus. We listen for his voice. We write down what he tells us in a spiritual journal. It takes time and it takes effort to fall in love with Jesus. But he promises he will reveal himself. If you look at the picture above, Jesus is reaching down, we have to make the effort to reach up to grab his hand. If we want access to love and power, we have to move. We have to take action. It’s on us.

Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my Father will love them. And I will love them and reveal myself to each of them. (John 14:21 NLT)