God's True Colors

God is love.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails…(1 Corinthians 13:4-8)

Since God is love, then God is patient, God is kind, God does not envy, God does not boast and is not proud. God is not rude and is not self-seeking. God is not easily angered and keeps no record of wrongs. God does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. God always protects, God always trusts, God always hopes, God always perseveres. God never fails.

God cannot NOT love... it is His very nature...He cannot be otherwise. Our society typically does not believe those things about love so we find it near impossible to believe those things about God, or that God is love.

Our culture says love is not patient. A young couple says that because they are in love they just can't wait. If you can't wait, then it's not love.

I know men and women who go from relationship to relationship with one unkind person after another. "Bad boys" often get the girl and "nice guys finish last". Kindness is not often popular in our society. If there's no kindness, then it's not love.

When I ask most couples whom I counsel who are preparing for marriage, "Why do you want to get married?" most of the reasons they give have to do with getting their own needs met--what's in it for them. Love is not self-seeking so if you're looking out for your own self-interests then it's not love.

Love keeps no record of wrongs. If you're keeping score, or use past infractions as ammunition when in the heat of an argument... then it's not love.

In a nation with a near 50% divorce rate among first-time marriages can we even make the claim that love always perseveres. Real love does. Always. If there is no perseverance then it's not love.

Because we see love as the opposite of what it really is we often see God as the opposite of who He really is. That distorted perception keeps so many people from trusting God. God loves you and wants you to love Him back. It's impossible to love someone you do not trust.

August 14: Is God All-powerful?

I grew up in church, but in my mid-teens had a crisis of faith. I had a lot of questions. I was not allowed to ask them in church. I didn’t find satisfactory answers and every reply raised ten new questions. I was asked to stop asking my questions.

The biggest hurdle for me in coming to faith was, "If there is a God, how can he be all-powerful and all-loving?" It seemed that if he were both that he would stop all the suffering in the world. If he were powerful enough to stop the suffering and didn't then he wasn't very loving. If he loved everyone and wanted to end the suffering, and yet couldn't, then he was weak. I was left with the prospect of following a God who was either mean or weak, or both.

The Bible asserts that God has made himself known through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures (Romans 1:2), through created, natural order...
"... since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse." (Romans 1:19-20)

The Prophet Jeremiah expounded on God's attributes:
"Ah, Sovereign LORD, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you. 18 You show love to thousands but bring the punishment for the fathers' sins into the laps of their children after them. O great and powerful God, whose name is the LORD Almighty, 19 great are your purposes and mighty are your deeds. Your eyes are open to all the ways of men; you reward everyone according to his conduct and as his deeds deserve." (Jeremiah 32:17-19)

Then I read the book of Job in the Bible. Job had lots of questions for God, like I did. For 37 chapters Job and his friends try to make sense of things and figure God out. Finally, in chapters 38-41, God shows up and speaks to Job. When he concludes Job still does not have the answers to his questions, but he does have a new understanding and perspective on how awesome God reaally is.

Then Job replied to the LORD: "I know that you can do all things (all powerful); no plan of yours can be thwarted. You asked, 'Who is this that obscures my counsel without knowledge?' Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know. "You said, 'Listen now, and I will speak; I will question you, and you shall answer me.' My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes." (Job 42:1-6)

God has demonstrated his power through Creation (Genesis 1-2), The Flood (Genesis 6), The Exodus (10 Plagues and Red Sea Crossing, Exodus 7-11, 14), The Miracles of Jesus and the Resurrection of Jesus (see the Gospels), The Acts of the Holy Spirit through the Apostles...

The list goes on. Even today we hear of modern medical stories that leave the doctors scratching their heads and without logical explanation as to what has happened. My friend Cheryl's X-ray show a tumor in her abdomen. She called friends and enlisted them to pray for her healing. When the surgeons operated there was no sign of a tumor...and no explanation as to how it had disappeared! We hear stories like these on a fairly regular basis.

There is nothing that God cannot do! The dilemma and the difficulty is why sometimes God seems to demonstrate his power and at other times remain unmoved and silent. I don't know why. I'm like Job, I know God can do all things but I cannot explain God. But I have seen over and over again His love demonstrated and His provision supplied in my own life. I know that God is real and that God loves me. I've learned over the years to trust His heart even when I cannot see His hand at work.

~ Father, thank you for demonstrating that there is nothing you cannot do. Help me to trust you even when I do not understand you ways. Amen.