God's Heart for Us

“I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.  I will build you up again, and you, Virgin Israel, will be rebuilt.  Again you will take up your timbrels and go out to dance with the joyful.” -Jeremiah 31:3&4

When people think of God, they tend to think of Him in several different ways.  Some think of God as a loving Father.  Other people believe He is a dictator.  Still others believe He is indifferent to us – as if he is too big and important to care what’s going on in our lives.  Some of us choose to believe that God is good, but we haven’t yet believed it in our hearts. We often think of God the same way we thought of our fathers growing up.

Many people believe that God is angry – all the time!  To them, God is a God of hell, fire, and brimstone – waiting to punish us with His iron-strong arm whenever they we something wrong.  But, this idea is a fallacy – this is not the God of the Bible.  God’s story is that of redemption – through sacrificial love.

Some may also argue that the Old Testament is full of God’s judgment and death due to His righteousness.  But, if we do not first look at the reason He created us, His plan, and His unfailing story of redemption, we miss the big picture.  God does not want people to suffer – in contrast, he wants them to know His love. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  John 3:16

If you could imagine the most caring, loving father on this earth, that is God times 1000.  So many times God gets blamed for the devil’s calamities.  Too often He gets blamed for our own sin.   Separation from God and His love wasn’t his choice – it happened in the garden, by our own.  (Genesis 3)  Too many times, God is misrepresented by those who say they know Him.

God’s heart for us is good.  It says it in his word.  It may not excuse us from negative or difficult things happening in our lives, but we should know God’s heart for us is to have peaceful, abundant lives filled with hope and promise because of our relationship to Him.  And, most of all, God’s heart for us is to know His unwavering, unending, unfailing love.

 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:3

No Respecter of Persons

"...but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.  For God does not show favoritism." -Romans 2:10-11
 
Sometimes, rather unintentionally, we as the body of Christ can develop a "superstar" mentality. What I mean by this is that we have had a revelation of our identity in God, but it becomes a little warped. We think we are the best thing that's happened to this planet, and we are the ones who are called to "save the earth". We develop circles around who is the coolest Christian. Others who are not directly in our circle may feel as though we are better than them when they are around us. We may feel that we have something extra special to contribute to the body of Christ because of our gifts or talents.

But you do know what? God doesn't think this way. He loves each and every one of us the same.

God doesn't care whether you're Brittany Spears or Mother Theresa, a person who has heard God 1000 times or someone who would say they've never heard God personally - He loves each of us without measure.

The change in the equation happens when we choose to seek more after God, and we inherit more of His promises over our lives, due to our obedience and revelation of His word.

But, this choice on our behalf does not mean we ought to think more highly of ourselves. In contrast, becoming more like Christ is about dying to self, although it is the most fulfilling thing in the world to be used by Him. "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me." -Gal 2:20
 
When we develop hierarchy of fellowship (not leadership) we can step into dangerous waters. Anything that tries to separate us or others from the love of God is not of Him.

"There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." Galatians 3:28
 
Let us all walk in humility as we seek to draw others toward a fulfilling, lasting relationship and destiny in Jesus.