William Booth’s best known piece of writing
may be the seven verses of his song, O
Boundless Salvation . . . deep ocean of love. Recently it was the theme song of The
Salvation Army’s 150th anniversary celebration in the city of its
birth in 1865, London, England. The song
is a powerful metaphor for the saving grace of God, his immeasurable and
unfathomable love for the world.
Samuel Logan Brengle also makes reference to the
love of God as an ocean of love when he states that when the Holy Spirit fills
our hearts and lives and abides in us, “the low water mark of our experience
will be ‘perfect peace’.” He writes that
he doesn’t dare say what the high water mark will be. Brengle raises a helpful word of assurance
for those who worry that the tide has gone out. To those concerned when all the high,
spirited emotion of spiritual experience seems to disappear, and when it seems
like the Holy Spirit has left us high and dry.
He writes –
“Don’t
think that when the tide flows out to the low water mark that the Comforter
(the Holy Spirit) has left you. . . Don’t think he has left you because you are
not overflowing with emotion. Hold fast
to your faith. . . The Holy Spirit is not capricious and fickle. . . Be true,
be full of faith, and you will be able to say with Paul: ‘I am persuaded that
that neither death, not life, nor things present, nor things to come, nor
height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate me from
the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.’ (Rom. 8:37-39.”
In our daily experience of God’s deep ocean
of love, the emotions of the experience will ebb and flow. There will be higher and higher water marks
as we mature and grow, and as God’s infilling of his holy love increases. But there will be low water marks as
well. That’s a good thing. It means that as we grow in God’s grace our capacity
to receive his love increases. What was
a high water mark becomes merely a lower water mark in the process of our growing
in capacity more and more. What at first
was a thimble like capacity to love becomes the capacity of a coffee mug, then a bath tub, swimming
pool, and Lake Michigan. The purpose of
our growth in grace and in his likeness is to be filled each day to the
brim. Each day we grow. He sets the brim a little higher and fills
us again with his very self. 
When you think the tide has seemingly gone out, rejoice! God is steadfast and faithful. He is at work growing your capacity to be filled. He then fills to the brim and we do unimaginable things for the Kingdom. Glory to God!
Fill
my cup, Lord. I lift it up, Lord.
Thy
Kingdom come!
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