The key to experiencing God's love
God’s love for mankind, as professed by many and portrayed in many texts, can often seem unrelatable and out of reach. While many speak of His love so easily, deep inside, questions linger. “Is there such a God who is so loving? Does He really love me?”, are amongst the questions we find ourselves asking in the face of life’s challenges and uncertainties. For skeptics, claims of such pure divine love may appear as a way to exploit the naive. They argue that if God truly loved us, the world wouldn’t be in such a terrible state.
Yet, God’s presence and glory are here for everyone, but we have a part to play in truly experiencing His love Bible says in Revelations 3:20, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him….”
In this article, we uncover the key to falling in love with God and experiencing the joy that it comes with, drawing insights from the Bible’s imagery concerning sheep. Sheep, it turns out, aren’t only for food clothing and sacrifices.
Presence and Conjunction
If you don’t apply what you know, you’re not conjoined to it
Sherlock Holmes Played by Benedict Cumberbatch
There’s an episode in BBC’s Sherlock TV series where John Watson (Sherlock’s roomate) is shocked that given how intelligent Sherlock (main character) is, he doesn’t know that the earth revolves around the sun. Sherlock acknowledges his ignorance, stating that the fact not useful for his work (by the way, if you have not seen BBC’s Sherlock, I highly recommend it?)
Likewise, We learn many things in our spiritual journey. God’s immeasurable love for us is one of the foremost and most endearing, but without use for it, especially in the face of life’s challenges, it becomes useless.
Knowing that God loves us presents an image of Him in our minds, but unless our affections are stirred towards him, there is no conjunction with Him. Thus, we cannot feel His love for us.
It’s like reading a book about farming. The ideas in the book only paint a picture of what farming should be, but rolling up your sleeves and tilling the soil is what brings a deeper, more intimate connection with those ideas.
God gives us the freedom to choose, but He will never force a conjunction with us unless we allow Him.
If we do not allow the knowledge about God’s love to take root through conjunction with Him, it will eventually wither away.
Sheep and Goats
The key to union with God lies in understanding why sheep are so favored in the Bible.
Sheep have many pleasant qualities (innocence, love for each other, flock mentality, etc.), but the one which stands out is their obedience to their shepherd – they are utterly lost without their shepherd.
To give you a sense of how profound it is, this Guardian article talks about how 1500 sheep fell off a cliff after their shepherds left the herd to graze while they had breakfast. The estimated total loss to the shepherds was about £45,000. This was 19 years ago.
God, by nature, constantly loves and desires to help us, but He can do so when we are willing to be led, and It is only in obedience – like sheep – that we relinquish the things that turn us away from Him.
To this effect, the Bible says in Matthew 5:8, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. This is how we desire Him, and adopt a likeness to which He can attach Himself. John 14:21 also captures it quite well.
Such is the case when we unwilling to be obedient to God.
Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me (Psalm 23).
With all this information, the 23rd Psalm takes a deeper, more refreshing meaning. Our Shepherd offers safety, comfort, growth, blessings (both material and spiritual) if we are willing to be His sheep.
Of note is verse 4 where it says, “Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me”
In a state where we are willing to be led by the Lord, his rod is a comfort to us. We trust in His guidance, knowing that he is leading us unto the path and into the midst of sheepfold.
Again, this is quite unlike goats who usually end up in trouble because their shepherd’s rod is anything but a comfort
Admittedly, It can be difficult to turn to the Lord in obedience, especially in the face of life’s challenges, but He is constantly beckoning us to allow Him in. The more obedient we are, the more He is revealed to us, and no matter where we are, He can reach us.
It is not unfairness. It is simply because, without this disposition, we are unwilling to allow Him to come in.
Takeaway
Sheep have many good qualities with one of the standout being obedience to their shepherd.
There is no substitute for obedience in our spiritual journey. We can learn many things about God’s love, but without a willingness to turn to him, it is difficult to feel it. This turning is effected by our obedience.
God has many promises for his sheep. John 10:27-28 says, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand”
This is how we feel God’s. Once we feel His love for us, and see how boundless it is, we cannot help but fall back in love with him
Further reading:
- Bible passages with references to sheep
- Dumb, Directionless, Defenseless