God’s deepest desire for us is that we would be rooted and grounded in love, that we would know the height and depth and width and breadth of the love of Christ, which surpasses understanding. The Bible says God is love, so we can never be comfortable with God if we don’t also get comfortable with love.

If we are rooted and grounded in love and experience every dimension of God’s love, then we are filled with God’s fullness. That’s where our intimacy with Him thrives. When you’re living from fullness, you’re no longer living from measure. Your supply is beyond sufficient; it’s abundant.

Experiencing God’s Fullness

Once, as I was walking through the Oslo airport, a verse came to mind in the form of a rap. I normally don’t think that way, but in Norwegian, this verse about being rooted and grounded in love (Ephesians 3:17) just came in perfect rhythm. (In English it would have been something like, “Rooted and grounded in love, hey! How high, how deep, how long, how wise…” and so on like that.) As I was singing this to myself, I started to feel waves of being rooted and grounded in love.

When I arrived at the city where I was speaking, I discovered that this was the verse my host was reading for the event. Later, I met different people who express this same verse— an Egyptian mother, then back in Oslo a former Muslim from Afghanistan who used to abuse his wife. Each one explained that waves of love had been touching them, and I could see the transformation on their faces. They had glowing expressions.

Love is the center of life that holds all things together. While everyone in Chairs 2 and 3 live in fear and restlessness, we know that “For God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7).

Becoming What We Behold

As we have seen again and again, intimacy is about loving God for who He is. That’s the invitation of Chair 1. By just being with Him, we learn how to see His face and hear His voice. We become what we behold, just as in the garden Adam and Eve saw, heard, felt, experienced, and encountered the Father as those made in His image. They gazed at Him and were like Him. They were one with Him in intimacy.

Whatever you’re facing today, I want to encourage you to take a moment to receive God’s love. His good thoughts toward you outnumber the sand on the seashore. Ask, “Papa, what do You see when You see me? What do You think about when You think of me?” When we enter into a process with what God speaks over us, we get more than an encounter; we get a lifestyle of love.