Hello Travel Companion!
Happy Easter at the end of this month!
Have you ever considered the process of a sunrise? I’m a night owl by nature, so I don’t tend to see many sunrises. This morning, though, I happened to be up early and figured I would go ahead and get my day started. As I went about my morning routine, I kept checking the progress of the sun to see if it was visible yet.
I should already know that much time passes between when the first rays of light brighten the sky until the sun shows up from the many sunrise services I attended growing up - though even then I remember driving to the location, worried with how light the sky was getting that somehow we would miss it. I felt the same way this morning.
In the same way I sometimes fear learning too much too soon, because in some way it would rush the coming of the end. Because to be honest, I’ve struggled with the hope of Jesus’ return and have rarely felt ready for His return. One of the reasons is because I never truly understood God’s love. I still don’t, and after 20+ pages of notes and studying I don’t know if I will ever be able to grasp what God’s love is all about. However, I would like to share a few points that are very important to me.
God is Love
God is eternally, enduringly, steadfastly loving and affectionate. He does not forsake or betray His covenant love.
Jn. 3:16 / Eph. 2:4-5 / 1 Jn. 4.16
- Aubrey Coleman Emotions and the Heart
Who is God? What makes Him love?
God is primarily a good Father who teaches his sons and daughters - not a teacher who occasionally fathers his students…. Though he is a magnificent teacher, he is first your Father. You’re never a number in a classroom. He names you his son or daughter whom he fully knows, loves, and pursues. - Allen Arnold
I grew up feeling like a number in a classroom. That I had to prove myself worthy of God’s love and attention. Then every mistake I made and rebuke I received felt like a declaration of my failure, because God and sin cannot coexist.
But that doesn’t stop God. Looking back through the characteristics of God we’ve gone through so far, I see where His love is tied in as the motivator for all He’s done:
- God is Eternal and, as Michael Reeves puts it in Delighting in the Trinity, “since God the Father has eternally loved his Son, it is entirely characteristic of him to turn and create others that he might also love them.”
- God is Faithful and has continued to pursue us according to His love for us, acting out the third aspect of Dr. Robert Sternberg's Triangular Theory of Love, the decision/commitment to love us now in our sin that He may continue to love us forever should we accept Him.
- God is Glorious, the most perfective being there ever was, and yet He has chosen to make Himself known in us whom He made in His image.
- God is Good and He provides good gifts to His children - a purpose in which to serve Him, the gift to do so, and all the resources we will need along the way whether that be the finances, skills, time, or companionship who also reflect God’s love onto us.
- God is Gracious in that He provided the greatest gift of all and that was in His Son He gave and who was willing to die on our behalf that we might be saved, and how Jesus’ blood payment not only covers the past, but also the present and into the future.
- God is Holy, the great God on high, and yet He loves us so tenderly and intimately, though He sits on the throne and judges the nations, He also kneels beside us to lift our faces that we might see how much He loves us.
- God is Immutable, He never changes, He is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow forevermore, and as He has not changed neither has His plan.
- God is Jealous for us, our devotion for Him that we would always be His, and nothing can separate us from His love.
- God is Just and fulfilled His desire for justice on our behalf through Jesus’ blood because of His great love for us.
When and/or where do I see evidence of this characteristic in my life?
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. - 1 Peter 1:3-5
I realized as I pulled up this passage again, that it said nothing of God's love, but this passage had left me basking in God's love a year ago as I realized three important truths it held:
- God gave us salvation though we didn't deserve it because of what Jesus did.
- This gift, this inheritance, will never perish, spoil, or fade, but is preserved in heaven for us.
- And it is God who shields us, protecting and keeping us until the time of our salvation comes.
How does this trait affect how God sees me?
Dr. Robert Sternberg, a professor of psychology at Cornell University and a past president of the American Psychological Association, developed the Triangular Theory of Love. He defined love as having three components: intimacy, passion, and decision/commitment. Intimacy describes the feelings of close connection that bond us in relationship. Passion is about the drive that prioritizes that relationship. Finally, the decision/commitment component is about both the present choice to love right now and the determination to see that love last in the long-term. - The Garden Within by Dr. Anita Phillips
Lately, I have been considering my relationship with God when I consider my relationship with my cat, Gobi. Gobi has never been a cuddly cat, though he does bear with getting picked up and hugged. But over the past year we have grown much closer. There is a companionship that didn't exist before, a trust and desire to be together, and also that choice to keep showing up, even when I refuse to give him more treats.
Likewise my relationship with God has grown over the past year. I’m finally learning to lean into the companionship that God desires with each of us. I am learning to trust His provision He so desires to give. And I have chosen and am taking steps to work alongside God even when I can’t feel His love.
Because of this perspective, what has God done?
Continuing with Gobi for a moment. Sometime last year, I brought a couple cat treats into my room. Gobi was sleeping, so instead of putting them in a bag of treats I already had in my room (which opening would have definitely woken him up), I set the treats on a shelf where I figured none of the other cats would get if they happened to wander in.
My room got hot that night so I opened a window. Just as I was settling back into bed, Gobi's head perked up and he sniffed the air. I watched as Gobi sniffed out the treats, and once located figured out how to swipe them off the shelf so he could eat them. After the first went to the floor, he decided to swipe the second straight into his mouth!
It got me thinking how much it delighted me to see Gobi work towards finding those treats (I now place them about my room so he has to go searching for them), and how God delights to see us working towards the good things He has prepared for us (Ephesians 2:10) that we might receive the reward He has in store for us:
Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing. - 2 Timothy 4:8 NKJV
How does this new understanding affect my response and how I live my life?
We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love. Romans 5:3-5 NLT
Every battle I fight, every struggle I wrestle with, and every hardship I face should be seen as worth it, because it is through these things that God is transforming me into His image.
So that my faith, as 1 Peter 1:7 says, “may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
As I come to better understand who God is, as I see more of Jesus in my life, as I become more in tune with the Spirit - may my response be to praise the one who loves me so graciously, to honor His name that is above all other names, as I stand in awe of His glory.
Friend, my battle to understand God's love has been a lifelong war, and this skirmish was not an easy one. His love used to lack all emotion, and the ground His love desires to grow in my heart has hardened with the numbness of depression. I ask for prayer that my heart may be softened that I may receive His love fully in what He has to give me.
To be quite honest, I almost sent an email explaining why I would not be able to send a newsletter this month.
If there is any way that I can be praying for you wherever you may be on your journey with God, I hope you would let me know.
Until next month, I hope you return to join me in looking into how God is merciful.
With love in Christ,
Rachel
In case you missed it, this is my latest blog post:
All Bible quotations are from the New International Version (NIV) unless otherwise noted.
