Loving God
Dave spoke this morning from Deuteronomy 6:4-9, one of the first explicit commandments to love God with all our heart, soul and strength. As we approach Valentine’s Day with its relentless emphasis on love (especially romantic love), it is worth remembering that God’s love for us and our love for Him are at the heart of a right understanding of love.
These verses from the Old Testament remind us that loving God is not simply something taught by Jesus. God is one, but there is a sense of relationship even within the Godhead which reminds us that love always involves others. A love of God sets all other loves in place; our love for God is the ultimate aim of humanity.
God demonstrates His love for us in giving us His Son; the natural response to such extravagant love is love in return. Often, we are distracted by lesser loves, but if we allow God’s word to dwell within us, then we will keep a right perspective on love and will be enabled to love as God loves.
The Acid Test
Sometimes as a teacher there are complicated things to cover which stretch a pupil’s ability to understand. But often, it’s grasping the basics which proves more arduous. The things that we should grasp quickly and build on can seem elusive to us.
Yesterday in the snow, local schools shut early, and I had the pleasure of doing some easy science experiments with my grandchildren, one being the simple test using pH paper to determine if a liquid is an acid or an alkali. We poured liquids onto these magic strips of paper in a petri dish and watched the paper change colour, checking the colours on a chart to conclude that lemon juice is an acid and milk is an alkali.
Now understanding why and how this happens may be more complicated, but the instantaneous change was easy enough for even my four-year-old granddaughter to grasp.
It made me think about what we call the ‘litmus test’ or ‘acid test’ in other areas, meaning a simple way of determining something. I was reminded of Jesus’s words, ‘by this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.’ (John 13:34)
Love is the simplest way of testing the reality of our faith. It’s so simple even a child can do it. Yet it’s something that adults often fail to grasp. We add on lots of complicated things and can then forget the basics.
So today, the challenge before every disciple of Jesus is to love others as the outworking of our love for God. It’s simple but profound. Love God. Love people. Even your enemies.
If You Want to Be Happy, Be Kind!
It was our ‘Little Big Church’ service tonight, with Garry speaking about the Beatitude ‘Blessed are the merciful, for they shall be shown mercy.’ (Matt 5:7) Still working on our bee theme, he re-told the story of the Unmerciful Servant (Matt 18:21-35), but this time, the character was a bee who had not saved enough pollen to last the winter…and who received mercy from the Queen Bee of another hive only to withhold mercy from another bee who needed help! The memorable message from tonight’s service was ‘if you want to be happy, be kind!’
Kindness, mercy, forgiveness and compassion are all key aspects of growing with God. We receive these things from God and therefore must reflect His character to others.
The Promises of God and our ‘Amen’!
The second half of Psalm 119:76 focuses on God’s promises to us (‘May Your unfailing love be my comfort, according to Your promise to Your servant.’) God’s promises to us form the foundation of our lives, for they are based on His character, and He who promised is faithful. (Heb 10:23) Throughout Scripture, we see how God promises things to people: a son and heir to Abraham and Sarah, even though Sarah was barren, a glorious future to Joseph beyond his wildest dreams, rescue from the land of slavery, for example. The fulfilment of these promises may well take time, but the outcome is secure because of God’s faithfulness.
Paul tells us‘‘No matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God.’ (2 Cor 1:20) What do we do while we wait for God to fulfil His promises? Waiting can be difficult, but Peter reminds us that God is not slow in keeping His promises (2 Pet 3:9), even if it may feel like that to us! We need to speak aloud the ‘Amen’, speaking God’s word above the doubts and fears that crowd into our minds as we wait. As we wait, we trust in God’s unfailing love; we are comforted by His unfailing love. We hold on to that love and rest secure in it. God’s timing will always be perfect and we will see the fulfilment of His promises in due season if we do not waver through unbelief.
God’s Unfailing Love
This morning we looked at the verse ‘May your unfailing love be my comfort, according to your promise to your servant.’ (Ps 119:76) The subject of God’s unfailing love is one of those foundational truths which enable us to live securely, strengthened and supported by God Himself. However, like so many other things, we must move from a theoretical knowledge only to practical application of these truths if we are to live according to God’s ways (akin to learning our times tables by heart but never knowing how to apply this knowledge to real life, so often our heads accept knowledge of God, but our lives don’t reflect these truths in daily living!)
The first thing we have to accept about God’s love is that it is not based in emotion, but rooted in the very essence of God (since God is love, 1 John 4:8, 16). God is never whimsical, cruel, fickle or capricious in HIs love, but neither is His love ‘soft’; His love will challenge us whenever we are wrong, since our highest good is His concern. If love never fails, however (1 Cor 13:8), then we can look forward to certain things if we are comforted by God’s unfailing love:
1. We can be unshaken (see Heb 12:28, Ps 21:7, Is 54:10) We can be like Weebles; we may wobble, but we won’t fall down – and if we fall, we will arise! (Micah 7:8)
2. We can be forgiven (God’s mercy to us is because of His unfailing love, as David prayed in Ps 51:1-2)
3. We can be satisfied (not needing material satisfaction, but finding satisfaction for our souls in God – Ps 90:14)
4. We can have joy (Ps 21:7, Ps 13:5). Jesus promised to give us His own joy (John 15:9-11)
5. We can flourish like the olive tree (Ps 52:8). The olive tree is an emblem of prosperity and beauty and religious privilege in the Bible. Jeremiah likens Israel to a ‘thriving olive tree with fruit beautiful in form’ (Jer 11:16); Hosea speaks of the ‘splendour’ of the olive tree. (Hosea 14:6) We can flourish in God not because of our efforts or talents, not because of our own goodness or righteousness, but because we are loved by God.
6. We can be supported (Ps 94:18)
7. We can be saved (Ps 109:26)
All these benefits can be ours because of God’s unfailing love.
Confidence in God, Confidence in the Future
Dave spoke this morning from Joshua 3:1-4 about confidence in the future. Joshua was the leader appointed by God after the death of Moses to lead the people of Israel into the Promised Land. They had been wandering in the wilderness after the miraculous exodus from Egypt for forty years; only Caleb and Joshua were left from that generation, as the rest did not believe God could help them to take the land. At this point, the Israelites were on the brink of the River Jordan. They were in unfamiliar territory, about to enter the Promised Land, but this was an unnerving situation for them. How would they respond? Would they have the faith to go in?
Each new year brings with it possibilities and challenges, but most of all, it brings the unknown to us. We can feel daunted and even afraid of the unknown, but ulltimately we need not fear, because we have a God who will lead and provide. All we need is faith that He will do this.
A fear of new things can greatly hinder us; it can prevent us from obtaining what God has for us. Fear, uncertainty and doubt cloud our vision, but we can be delivered from these things. The word of God to Joshua was encouraging and positive, but he needed to meditate on this, as do we. We must be proactive in letting God’s word push fear away. We have to keep our eyes firmly fixed on the Lord and commit ourselves to following Him wherever He may lead. Our natural tendency is often to say no, but we must learn to depend on the faithfulness of God. The future may be unknown to us, but it is not unknown to God, and because of this we can have confidence in the future.