God’s Great Love – Ahava

All You Need is Love was a popular song by the Beatles released in 1967.  Many still sing this song today since it encapsulates the belief that if we have “love” everything else will turn out OK.   Even as we consider Valentine’s Day in the month of February the spotlight is focused on celebrating romantic love with various attempts at expressing “love” like chocolates, roses and dining out.

Growing in His Love

God created us to be loved and to love.  Love is the theme of Scripture even as it is personified both in the Hebrew Scriptures (Ahava) and in the New Testament (agape).

 Jeremiah 31:3 “The LORD appeared to him from afar, saying, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore, I have drawn you with lovingkindness.”

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” 

As His children, God desires for us to grow in our understanding of the immeasurable love of God which Paul describes in his prayer for believers in Ephesians 3:14:

“For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man; so that Messiah may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Messiah which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.”

Like Paul, I desire for this prayer to shape my life as I continually ask myself, “Am I being rooted and grounded in love or in fear?”  It’s a prayer we can pray for ourselves and for each other each day….. that He would grant us, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man….

Rooted and Grounded in His Love

Love is not something we add to our lives of faith as time goes on. Love is the root and the foundation of our lives as believers. This is what Paul is emphasizing as he uses two contrasting illustrations to underscore the importance of a right start: the world of the biologist and the world of the builder. A seed grows in the soil, and a building grows as well but they are established and developed in different ways. They do have one thing in common, however. They both must have a true and right beginning.

We must be rooted in love.  Maybe some of you are gardeners and understand the value of a plant rooted in soil without stones or rocks to hinder growth. If you let the stones of fear and worry dominate the soil of your life, then it will hinder the proper growth of God’s love. Paul viewed love as the soil in which all the experiences of our lives as believers must grow. If our lives as believers are not rooted in love, they will wither and fade. God’s Love is the soil which provides the nutrients necessary to sustain fragrant, fruitful lives.

We must also be grounded in love. The Greek word “themelioo” translated, “grounded” relates to the foundation of a building. Yeshua used the same word in His parable of the wise and foolish builders. Remember the children’s song – The wise man built his house upon the rock and the house on the rock stood firm.  Are you building your life on your fear of failure or your good works – instead of the foundation of God’s love?

Have you left your First Love?

Perhaps the congregation in Ephesus had forgotten these essential elements of their faith, for in Revelation 2:4 after God commends them, He says, “But I have this against you, that you have left your first love.”

Remember, God’s love can never leave you, but it is possible for you to willfully abandon his love and merely give the Lord your service without giving Him your heart. The Ephesians were outstanding in their work for the Lord, but they no longer had the intimate fellowship with Him they once had.

I desire to not only serve the Lord but to have His intimate love poured into my life.

God So Loved the world

How can we stay rooted and grounded in God’s Love- His Ahava Love?

First, we need to understand the measure of this love.  Access to His presence is without boundaries – God is love and, in His presence, we can know this love without reservation.  

How long is your persistent fear, how wide is your greatest worry, how deep is your deepest disappointment? Can you understand that in His presence, seeking His face is the very place that will dispel this persistent fear that continues to overwhelm you. The length of God’s love stretches back beyond your farthest thoughts and forward, on and on forever and forever.

That worry that seems to loom ahead of you is not too wide for God’s love. Elohim, our Creator God, created the entire universe and His love is wider than the universe. When God demonstrated His love by becoming a man and living on earth, His love was not narrow, nor prearranged by certain customs. Yeshua loved the rich young ruler and the woman caught in adultery.  God so loved the world and you personally…such is the wideness and specificity of His love.

God’s Love is Beyond our Understanding

How deep is His love?  From Calvary, Yeshua went to the grave and down into Hades, itself. 

A well-known song of praise written by Samuel T. Francis expresses the deep love of Yeshua this way:

O the deep, deep love of Yeshua,

vast, unmeasured, boundless, free!

Rolling as a mighty ocean in its fullness over me!

 Underneath me, all around me, is the current of Thy love

 Leading onward, leading homeward to Thy glorious rest above!

These concepts of God’s immeasurable love are difficult for us to understand, therefore Paul’s prayer requests, “that you may be able to comprehend with all the saints” …(Eph. 3:18).

His love, whether expressed in Hebrew or Greek, is beyond our human understanding, but I’m so thankful that we will have eternity with our Beloved to keep growing in His LOVE.

Ahava = Devotion and Time

Love, or “ahava” in the Hebraic mind, is very different in today’s culture. In Hebrew, love is connected directly with action and obedience. Strong’s Exhaustive Dictionary defines ahava as “to have affection, sexually or otherwise, love, like, to befriend, to be intimate.”  It brings to mind the idea of longing for or breathing for another. Hebraically ahava is a verb and a noun, it is an act of doing. Ahava is not just a feeling. To get a clear understanding of ahava, let’s examine the Hebrew word itself and learn how to love Hebraically.

First, most Hebrew words can be broken down to a three-consonant root word that contains the essence of the word’s meaning. The root word of ahava is “ahav.”  The term ahav in Hebrew means, “to give.”  True ahava, true love, is more concerned about giving than receiving.  Being the center of someone’s attention isn’t love.  And love isn’t about getting some feeling or fix.  Ahava is about giving devotion and time.  Giving is the vehicle of love. YHWH so loved the world that He GAVE His only Son.  Meaningful relationships have mutual giving.  Love may focus on receiving, but ahava is all about giving.  There is a difference.  Consider that the Hebrew word “ahava” is not an emotion but an action.  It is not something that happens “to you” but a condition that you create when you give.  You don’t “fall” in love – you give love!

The Benefits of His Love

The Hebrew word “ahava” is spelled “aleph, hei, bet, hei.”  The root word ahav is spelled “aleph, hei, bet.” These Hebrew letters reveal a secret of love hidden for thousands of years. This secret is exposed through the meaning behind each Hebrew letter in “ahav.” 

The benefits of His love can be seen through the acrostic of the Hebrew word for “Love,” AHAVA…

ACCESS TO HIS PRESENCE IS WITHOUT BOUNDARIES: God is love and in His presence, we can know this love without reservation.

HESED IS HIS UNRESERVED KINDNESS: God does not expect us to comprehend this immeasurable love in our own strength, but rather He pours out His strength to each of us by the power of His Spirit.

ABUNDANCE OF HIS RICHES IS IMMEASURABLE: “according to the riches of His glory” which means, in proportion to His glorious heavenly treasures.

VALUE OF YOUR SOUL IS INESTIMABLE: “that you may be filled to the measure of all of the fullness of God,” do not let your soul be empty and barren for God desires that you be satisfied, filled with the fullness of His love not with earthly fear and phobias.

AMAZING LOVE DIVINE IS EVERLASTING: even in our eternal home, the New Jerusalem, we will be surrounded by His infinite love (Revelation 21:3-4). May this unending love of Messiah Yeshua be your continual source of strength and joy!