God’s love
A letter to an acquaintance:
I know we don’t really know each other very well, but during the week of prayer someone asked prayer for you and I felt the need to encourage you if I could.
The last few times I’ve seen you, you seemed burdened down. I’ve been there, many times, too many times to count. So, I feel I am qualified to try to help. The whole world has been there, so in a spiritual sense everyone is made of one blood, we are all in this life of vanity and vexation of spirit together.
What the world needs to learn, and what we need to be reminded of constantly, is God’s love—His never-ending love. “Let these sayings sink down into your ears.” (Luke 9:44 ). More than any other attribute of God, He is love. And He can never change that disposition, never waver from that frame of mind toward all His human children and creation. God is love is written behind every promise and every warning. Even His threats come from a love that sees all the ramifications and causes of our world-wide ignorance of His love.
Sin is the transgression of the Law, is one definition in the Bible. The other is, Whatsoever is not of faith is sin. The two are in perfect agreement, and both center around love. The second definition says, Love is what we all need. It’s what we all want, and what we all deserve. I deserve to be loved, you deserve to be loved. Similarly, the first definition says, I deserve to love you, it’s my obligation to love you, because I am loved. The definitions intimate that it’s my duty to love you and that it’s also my privilege.
Love is at the center of God and His government in heaven and earth. He has left no base uncovered. In every aspect of our thinking, He has made provision to guide us back to love.
“A bruised reed shall He not break, and the smoking flax shall He not quench: He shall bring forth judgment unto truth.” (Isaiah 42:3). This isn’t just historic fact of a Messiah. It is an ever living promise of One who lives to make intercession for us. Interceding, protecting, loving us is His only purpose to exist. It’s the way He is and always will be. It’s the way He always treat us.
He delicately deals with our situation; He sees behind the symptoms and knows the cause. Sin has robbed us of the natural faculty to love and to appreciate love. We may comprehend His love, and it may break upon us like the sun in the sky; yet, we still may lose its force and evidence, and come up short again. It’s a routine that we must accept. And God lovingly accepts it also, and works with us. That’s why He prepared the plan of salvation before sin ever existed.
This lack of abiding in love is precisely why the world is such a rough place to live in. Love alone soothes the savage beast in all of us, a savageness which happens when love and acceptance are lacking. Without a knowledge of God’s love we all come up abused and bruised. No one can last long without love, and we live in a whole world that is trying to exist without the infinite love of their Creator. Satan constantly bombards us with sidetracks and substitutions for the peace that being loved brings—snappy music, exciting adventures, intoxicating food, diversions, and distractions. The popular hope is that if we can just forget about our misery, maybe it will permanently go away. All this diagnosis without ever an ounce of cure.
Satan is trying to run this world successfully, yet he rejects God’s love and cannot allow it to be part of the constitution for his big operation. The greatest evidence that God and Satan exist is found in that all aspects of the human being and this world have been built perfectly, like only an infinite Being could do it—yet unending love, the most basic fuel we need to function properly, is absent; and that absence has made us all dysfunctional and is destroying each human being. Yet God promises that He will so carefully deal with our situations, that He will not let us break, after all the bruising of the master whom we have chosen; and He vows that He will nurture us with such concern and consideration that He doesn’t put out our smoldering hope for His love.
If we have a problem with Him or the way He is running things, He has an open-door policy, and we can go straight to Him and unload on Him, even to tell Him like it is. He won’t be offended in the least. There is no disrespect toward Him by His child that He won’t overlook and forgive. In fact, going to the Son with our grievances is one of His favorite times to commune with us, because then it is that all of our self-sufficiency and politeness are set aside, and we are truly serious. No names, no titles; no going in and worshipping Him (Matt. 20:20). Just us and God. We close the door and get down to business. “Do You really love me, or not?”
And out of the tears and the wrestling, we get what we’ve wanted all our lives: His confirmation that He does love us and always has. A confirmation that lasts a lifetime.
I know we don’t really know each other very well, but during the week of prayer someone asked prayer for you and I felt the need to encourage you if I could.
The last few times I’ve seen you, you seemed burdened down. I’ve been there, many times, too many times to count. So, I feel I am qualified to try to help. The whole world has been there, so in a spiritual sense everyone is made of one blood, we are all in this life of vanity and vexation of spirit together.
What the world needs to learn, and what we need to be reminded of constantly, is God’s love—His never-ending love. “Let these sayings sink down into your ears.” (Luke 9:44 ). More than any other attribute of God, He is love. And He can never change that disposition, never waver from that frame of mind toward all His human children and creation. God is love is written behind every promise and every warning. Even His threats come from a love that sees all the ramifications and causes of our world-wide ignorance of His love.
Sin is the transgression of the Law, is one definition in the Bible. The other is, Whatsoever is not of faith is sin. The two are in perfect agreement, and both center around love. The second definition says, Love is what we all need. It’s what we all want, and what we all deserve. I deserve to be loved, you deserve to be loved. Similarly, the first definition says, I deserve to love you, it’s my obligation to love you, because I am loved. The definitions intimate that it’s my duty to love you and that it’s also my privilege.
Love is at the center of God and His government in heaven and earth. He has left no base uncovered. In every aspect of our thinking, He has made provision to guide us back to love.
“A bruised reed shall He not break, and the smoking flax shall He not quench: He shall bring forth judgment unto truth.” (Isaiah 42:3). This isn’t just historic fact of a Messiah. It is an ever living promise of One who lives to make intercession for us. Interceding, protecting, loving us is His only purpose to exist. It’s the way He is and always will be. It’s the way He always treat us.
He delicately deals with our situation; He sees behind the symptoms and knows the cause. Sin has robbed us of the natural faculty to love and to appreciate love. We may comprehend His love, and it may break upon us like the sun in the sky; yet, we still may lose its force and evidence, and come up short again. It’s a routine that we must accept. And God lovingly accepts it also, and works with us. That’s why He prepared the plan of salvation before sin ever existed.
This lack of abiding in love is precisely why the world is such a rough place to live in. Love alone soothes the savage beast in all of us, a savageness which happens when love and acceptance are lacking. Without a knowledge of God’s love we all come up abused and bruised. No one can last long without love, and we live in a whole world that is trying to exist without the infinite love of their Creator. Satan constantly bombards us with sidetracks and substitutions for the peace that being loved brings—snappy music, exciting adventures, intoxicating food, diversions, and distractions. The popular hope is that if we can just forget about our misery, maybe it will permanently go away. All this diagnosis without ever an ounce of cure.
Satan is trying to run this world successfully, yet he rejects God’s love and cannot allow it to be part of the constitution for his big operation. The greatest evidence that God and Satan exist is found in that all aspects of the human being and this world have been built perfectly, like only an infinite Being could do it—yet unending love, the most basic fuel we need to function properly, is absent; and that absence has made us all dysfunctional and is destroying each human being. Yet God promises that He will so carefully deal with our situations, that He will not let us break, after all the bruising of the master whom we have chosen; and He vows that He will nurture us with such concern and consideration that He doesn’t put out our smoldering hope for His love.
If we have a problem with Him or the way He is running things, He has an open-door policy, and we can go straight to Him and unload on Him, even to tell Him like it is. He won’t be offended in the least. There is no disrespect toward Him by His child that He won’t overlook and forgive. In fact, going to the Son with our grievances is one of His favorite times to commune with us, because then it is that all of our self-sufficiency and politeness are set aside, and we are truly serious. No names, no titles; no going in and worshipping Him (Matt. 20:20). Just us and God. We close the door and get down to business. “Do You really love me, or not?”
And out of the tears and the wrestling, we get what we’ve wanted all our lives: His confirmation that He does love us and always has. A confirmation that lasts a lifetime.
posted by David | 5:13 AM
3 Comments:
These are beautiful words!
Thanks, anonymous. Take care.
Anonymous, I can't remember my password, so I have to answer as anonymous.
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