The Overflowing Love of God: Embracing His Grace Beyond Our Wildest Imaginations
Have you ever tried to measure something immeasurable? To count stars or catalog grains of sand? To quantify the depth of a parent's devotion or calculate the dimensions of joy? These are the futile mathematics we attempt when we try to comprehend just how much God loves us.
GOD'S LOVE
Alex Tan
3/1/20259 min read


The Overflowing Love of God: Embracing His Grace Beyond Our Wildest Imaginations
The little girl stood at the shoreline, plastic bucket in hand, determination in her eyes. "I'm going to take the ocean home with me," she announced to her father, who watched with an amused smile. Scoop after tiny scoop, she filled her bucket, marveling at how the waves kept coming, undeterred by her small withdrawals from their vastness.
That child and her bucket remind me of us—standing at the edge of God's love, our small hearts attempting to contain what was never meant to be contained. His love isn't a measured portion, carefully rationed like the last drops of water in a desert canteen. It's the ocean itself—boundless, bottomless, endlessly renewing, and gloriously overwhelming.
The Love That Defies Measurement
Have you ever tried to measure something immeasurable? To count stars or catalog grains of sand? To quantify the depth of a parent's devotion or calculate the dimensions of joy? These are the futile mathematics we attempt when we try to comprehend just how much God loves us.
The Apostle Paul—brilliant, educated, articulate Paul—found himself reaching for spatial metaphors when words failed him:
"That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God." — Ephesians 3:17-19 (NKJV)
Notice the beautiful contradiction here—Paul prays that we might "know" something that "passes knowledge." It's as if he's saying, "I pray you'll understand what can't be understood, that you'll grasp what can't be grasped, that you'll measure what can't be measured."
Why? Because God's love isn't a concept to be studied but a reality to be experienced.
I think of Eleanor, an elderly woman I met while visiting a nursing home. Her body was failing, but her eyes still sparkled when she spoke of Jesus. "I've known Him for seventy-eight years," she told me, "and I've only begun to discover how much He loves me." Eleanor had spent nearly eight decades diving into the ocean of God's love, and still she found it deeper than her deepest dive.
When Love Came Down
Perhaps the most staggering truth about God's love is not its magnitude but its direction. It moves downward. It descends. It stoops.
"But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." — Romans 5:8 (NKJV)
Notice the timing: "while we were still sinners." Not when we cleaned ourselves up. Not when we proved ourselves worthy. Not when we finally got our act together.
While. We. Were. Still. Sinners.
It's like the father who dives into sewage to rescue his child who has fallen through an open manhole. He doesn't stand at the edge calling down, "Clean yourself up first, and then I'll help you!" No—love compels him to plunge into the filth, to go where his child is, to lift them out regardless of the cost to himself.
This is what God did in Jesus. Heaven's royalty wrapped in earth's rags. Divinity clothed in dust. The Creator entering creation to rescue the very ones who had rebelled against Him.
I remember reading about a wealthy businessman who adopted a child from a war-torn country. The boy had been found in an abandoned building, half-starved and unable to speak from trauma. For months after the adoption, the child would hoard food under his mattress, certain that provision would eventually run out. Every night, the father would discover the hidden stash, and every night, he would sit on the edge of the bed and whisper, "You don't need to hide food anymore. There will always be enough. You're home now."
Isn't this what God says to us? "You don't need to hide. You don't need to earn. You don't need to prove. My love has brought you home."
The Gift We Struggle to Receive
There's an old proverb that says, "The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings." I'd add that even harder is believing we deserve those blessings in the first place.
So many of us struggle to receive God's love fully. We stand in the downpour of His grace with only a thimble to catch what He pours out, convinced that's all we deserve.
"See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!" — 1 John 3:1 (NIV)
The word "lavished" paints a picture of extravagance, of abundance without restraint. It's not the careful measuring of a chemist but the generous pouring of a host who delights in seeing cups overflow.
Sarah learned this lesson after years of believing God's love was earned through perfect behavior. As a pastor's daughter, she had internalized the unspoken expectation that God's favor depended on her performance. When her marriage crumbled despite her prayers and faith, she felt abandoned by God, certain she had failed too greatly to be loved anymore.
"I remember sitting in my car outside the divorce attorney's office," she told me, "feeling like God was done with me. And then, as clearly as I've heard anything, these words filled my mind: 'I have never loved you more than I do right now.' It broke me—because I realized I had been seeing God as a cosmic scorekeeper rather than a loving Father."
Sarah's story reminds us that God's love isn't diminished by our failures or increased by our successes. It remains constant—not because we are worthy, but because He is faithful.
When God Colors Outside the Lines
Children's ministry teachers often struggle with certain artistic students—the ones who refuse to stay within the lines of the coloring page, whose blue skies spill into green grass, whose enthusiasm can't be contained by black-lined boundaries.
God's love is like this. It refuses to stay within the lines we draw around it.
"Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us." — Ephesians 3:20 (NKJV)
Notice the piling up of adverbs—not just "abundantly" but "exceedingly abundantly." Not just "above" but "above all." Paul is reaching for language that can convey a love that consistently exceeds expectations, that overflows categories, that spills beyond what we dare to imagine.
James discovered this when his teenage son disappeared into a world of addiction. For three years, James and his wife prayed, searched, and waited. Each night, James would stand on their porch, looking down the street, hoping to see his son's familiar silhouette coming home.
"I had started to believe God had answered 'no' to our prayers," James shared. "I thought my son might be gone forever. Then at 2 a.m. on a Tuesday, my doorbell rang. There he was—thin, unkempt, but alive. 'Dad,' he said, 'I remembered what you always told me: that no matter what I did, I could always come home.' That night, I understood the father in the prodigal son story in a way I never had before. And I realized that while I was standing on my porch looking for my son, God had been standing on His porch, watching for me to come home my entire life."
God's love reaches farther, waits longer, and restores more completely than we imagine possible. It colors outside the lines of our limited expectations.
The Courage to Dream Bigger
I once heard a preacher say, "Most of us don't have a God who's too small; we have dreams that are too small for the God we have." Perhaps our greatest act of faith isn't believing that God exists, but believing that His love toward us is as expansive as He claims.
What would change if we really believed Ephesians 3:20? If we dared to dream according to His power rather than our perception? If we prayed from a place of abundance rather than scarcity?
When Moses encountered God at the burning bush, his first response was, "Who am I?" But God essentially replied, "That's the wrong question, Moses. The real question isn't who you are, but who I AM." Our inadequacy is never the final word in God's economy. His adequacy overwhelms our limitations.
Learning to Live Drenched
To fully embrace God's love, we must allow it to transform how we think, how we pray, and how we live. Here are some pathways into that transformation:
Meditate on His Word – Let Truth Reshape Your Thinking
The ancient practice of meditation isn't about emptying our minds but about filling them with truth that crowds out lies. When we repeatedly return to Scriptures that reveal God's heart toward us, those truths begin to seep from our minds into our hearts.
Each morning, I write one verse about God's love on a small card and carry it with me through the day. In line at the grocery store, at red lights, during moments of anxiety—I pull it out and read it again. By day's end, the truth has begun to take root in places previously occupied by doubt.
Reject Fear and Doubt – They Cannot Coexist with Perfect Love
"There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment." — 1 John 4:18 (NIV)
Fear whispers that we must protect ourselves because no one else will. Love reassures us that we are already protected by the One who gave everything for us. When we feel afraid, it's often because we've momentarily forgotten how loved we are.
Daniel, a chronic worrier, began a simple practice when anxiety threatened to overwhelm him. He would place his hand over his heart and whisper, "Perfect love casts out fear," feeling the physical reminder of truth against his racing heartbeat. "It doesn't make the problems disappear," he explained, "but it reminds me who holds me while I face them."
Pray with Expectation – Approach the Throne with Confidence
The throne room of God isn't a place of judgment for those covered by Christ's sacrifice—it's a place of grace. The writer of Hebrews urges us to "approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need" (Hebrews 4:16).
Imagine a child who approaches her father with hesitation, unsure if her request will be met with irritation or acceptance. Now imagine another child who bounds confidently into her father's presence, certain of his delight in her. Which child truly knows the father's heart?
Our prayers reveal what we believe about the One to whom we pray.
Extend Love to Others – Become a Reservoir, Not a Dam
God's design isn't that His love terminates with us but that it flows through us. We are meant to be conduits, not endpoints—reservoirs that fill and spill over, not dams that collect and contain.
"We love because he first loved us." — 1 John 4:19 (NIV)
When we struggle to love others, especially the difficult people in our lives, it may be because we're trying to generate love from our own limited supply. But when we position ourselves to continually receive God's boundless love, we find we can give without depleting ourselves.
Maria discovered this while caring for her mother with advanced dementia. After months of exhaustion and resentment, she realized she had been trying to love from an empty well. "I started spending the first thirty minutes of each day just receiving God's love for me," she shared. "I would sit with my coffee and picture myself held in His arms, completely loved despite all my flaws. From that place of being filled, I found I could go to Mom with a patience that wasn't my own."
A Love That Changes Everything
The ancient desert fathers had a saying: "Stay in your cell, and your cell will teach you everything." While they meant the physical space of a monk's simple room, there's a broader truth here for all of us: when we remain in the "cell" of God's love—that space where we are fully known and fully loved—it gradually teaches us everything we need to know about who God is, who we are, and how to live.
God's love isn't just one aspect of our spiritual lives; it's the foundation that supports everything else. When we truly believe we are loved beyond measure by the Creator of the universe, fear loosens its grip, shame slips away, and a holy confidence emerges—not in our own abilities, but in the One who holds us.
The 17th-century mystic Brother Lawrence wrote about "practicing the presence of God"—living with a constant awareness of divine companionship. Perhaps we might also practice the "love of God"—a moment-by-moment remembrance that we are deeply, completely, and permanently beloved.
An Invitation to the Deep End
There's a profound difference between wading ankle-deep at the shoreline and diving into the depths of the ocean. One lets you stay safe and dry above the waterline; the other immerses you completely, surrounding you with wonder.
God's love invites us away from the shallows and into the deep.
The little girl with her bucket eventually tired of her impossible task. Looking at the vast ocean stretching to the horizon, she upended her bucket, watched the water rejoin the waves, and then did something surprising. She took her father's hand, left the bucket on the sand, and walked into the waves with him, squealing with delight as the water rose around her.
This is our invitation too—to leave behind our small containers, our limited expectations, our hesitant receiving, and to wade into the endless ocean of a love that will never run dry, never turn away, and never love us less than completely.
God's love is vast, endless, and freely given. It defies our attempts to earn it, exceed our attempts to comprehend it, and overwhelms our attempts to contain it. When we truly embrace it, we stop living in fear, stop striving for approval, and start walking in the unshakable confidence that we are fully loved and fully accepted.
His love isn't just for someday in eternity but for this very moment. It's not just for your soul but for your everyday struggles, your ordinary Tuesdays, your midnight doubts, and your midday victories.
The ocean of His love awaits. Will you wade in deeper today?





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