The Depths of Love

Here is love, vast as the ocean,

Lovingkindness as the flood,

When the Prince of Life, our Ransom,

Shed for us His precious blood.

Who His love will not remember?

Who can cease to sing His praise?

He can never be forgotten,

Throughout Heav’n’s eternal days.

On the mount of crucifixion,

Fountains opened deep and wide;

Through the floodgates of God’s mercy

Flowed a vast and gracious tide.

Grace and love, like mighty rivers,

Poured incessant from above,

And Heav’n’s peace and perfect justice

Kissed a guilty world in love.

The devotional theme of my trip was my heart. Our leaders had the Team West leader from last year speak to us at the end of first semester. He told us that the best preparation for the team was for each of us to warm our hearts with the love of Christ…but not to do it just for the trip. Let that love fill our hearts for all our lives! That stayed with me for the whole of second semester, and I wasn’t surprised to see the reoccurring theme in my devotions throughout the trip: what does my heart look like? what is it filled with? what is pouring out of it?

Dr. Innes, the pastor of the church in San Francisco, said, “The bottom line of love is selflessness.” I can recount a few times on the trip that my problems went back to a selfish heart. I wanted my own way; I was being selfish. I wasn’t willing to say yes to God’s plan; I wasn’t loving Him. I spent a lot of time praying that God would empty my heart of my self and selfishness, and fill me with His love!

Christ’s love is sacrificial. Christ’s love said yes to the hard things. Christ’s love gave up His rights. Christ’s love portrayed in me is sacrificial, says yes to the hard things, gives up my rights. Christ’s love portrayed in me offers my life completely for the service and worship of God. Christ’s love portrayed in me says that I want to live every moment for His glory…and there is no room for self in that.

Let me all Thy love accepting,

Love Thee, ever all my days;

Let me seek Thy kingdom only

And my life be to Thy praise. […]

Of Thy fullness Thou art pouring

Thy great love and power on me,

Without measure, full and boundless,

Drawing out my heart to Thee.

~Here is Love by William Rees and William Williams