These are the words of Charles Wesley’s 1747 hymn, Love Divine, All Loves Excelling. No one can be certain as to which passage of Scripture may have inspired Wesley to write this hymn. However, like his brother, John, Charles meditated upon Scripture every day. Charles wrote that divine love excels all other forms of love. The writer of Ephesians 3:18 declared that God’s love has greater width, length, height, and depth than any one of us can imagine.

     Yet, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try and imagine anyway the love that God has for you and me If you are employed, you can imagine that right now God is lovingly securing a position in which you can use all of your spiritual gifts to help bring about Christ’s Kingdom here on earth? If you are mourning the death of a loved one, can you imagine God drying the tears of your eyes as He reminds you of the new life your loved one is enjoying today? If you fail to see any hope for change in the life of a wayward teenager, can you imagine Jesus healing the mind of a pagan once oppressed by demons?

     The problem for many of us is that we magnify our problems and thereby minimize God’s love and power. The answer lies then in turning around the magnifying glass of our minds for the purpose of enlarging God’s love in comparison to our problems. In doing so, the width and length and height and depth of God’s love towers over any challenge we face.

     So, for today your prayer can simply be: “Lord Jesus, grant me the capacity to perceive your unbounded love for me, so that all the concerns and challenges of my trembling heart may pale in comparison to your amazing grace.” Amen.