love

We know that God is love (1 Jn 4:8). God’s actions proceed from His character, of which emotions are a part. We are eager to look into His love for us and all that love has for us. Yet a relationship with God should take into consideration all His heart has to express. I head a minister say “God is happy with you,” to the congregation one day. Is happiness all God feels?

Happiness is not always a comfortable expression of love. If our own spouse is in a terrible wreak, happiness would seem out of place. Concern, comfort, and peace would be more appropriate expressions of God’s caring during these trying circumstances. People need to know God cares. When terrible tragedies strike the earth, God’s heart hurts. He takes no pleasure in death. We see God’s care for us in our trials as He comes along side us to comfort, heal and restore. He does so because of His character, and just as we can feel pain over suffering or loss of life, so does God.

God made Man for a reciprocal love relationship. Because we are made in His image we are also capable of loving in the same way that God loves us. His love can bear our mistakes, weaknesses and failures. In fact, He blots our transgressions out for His sake (Is 43:25) because He wants to love us. We in turn forgive others their weaknesses and sins, because we want to love.

Though we should be able to learn more about God’s character from reading the Bible, there seem to be parts we avoid. We shy away and downright avoid mention of God’s displeasure in church services. But the scriptures hold valuable insights into what God’s heart is like, and how He yearns to have His love returned to Him by His people.

In a relationship between man and wife, it is better to talk matters over than to let them brew. “Better is open rebuke than hidden love,” (Prov 27:5). Hidden inactive love will not sustain a marriage through its problems, and tepid love will not sustain God’s people through their trials (Rev 3:15-16). Words are important in a relationship because they express what’s in our hearts. In Isaiah 66 we read that the Lord is seeking people who are humble and contrite, and who take His words seriously (vs 2). Yet His people did not value His words, and preferred their own ways. Just as this would put the damper on an earthly marriage, we see how this puts the same sort of pain and distance in our relationship with God. Self-interest will cause us to desire our own ways over our relationship with our spouse, and with our God. Though some can bear our weaknesses, and forgives us our sins, when the love goes out of our hearts there is little life left in the relationship.

Are there limits to how much God will bear from us? We would like to think His love is limitless and eternal. But in reality, there are things His people have done in the past that threw cold water in His face. One was the insincerity of their actions. Though God’s people were the recipient of His love, they only went through the motions of their relationship with Him. In Isaiah chapter 1 we read about how hard it was for God to bear their actions, which were void of any meaning. They were doing right things from a wrong heart, and it wounded God so much that He couldn’t bear to see the things they did. In our day we might say they “cheapened” love. It held no meaning to God.

Though insincerity wounds our relationship with God we can repent and strengthen our love. It is not a place of no return. Indifference and contempt, if not repented of, are places of no return. When we lose the knowledge of God’s character because we are more concerned with our own desires, we lose love. When God’s heart is aching, we need to remember that His heart wants to love. When a flood kills many people, or other tragedies strike, we need to be a comfort to Him by honoring His loving nature. And when God corrects His people, we need to be as grieved as He is at the trials that come upon us all. During a time like this the Lord asked Israel to weep and put on sackcloth, for He was grieved at the correction necessary for their nation (Is 22:12). What grieved God even more was that they refused to feel His pain, and did not repent of their actions. Instead they said “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” (vs 13b). They loved their own ways so much that they would not entertain the heart of God because it contained pain and displeasure at their sins. Sadly, their indifference and contempt cause the Lord to reply “To your dying day this sin will not be atoned for.” (vs 14).

Though insincerity, indifference and contempt will injure God’s heart, it is not too late for us to repent and return to our first love of Him. God’s love wants to love us. Knowing the nature of God’s heart through the scripture and by looking at the nature of love between people will help us when we lose our love. “Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent,” (Rev 3:19). Let us return love to God and be strengthened in our earthly love-relationships today, and always. Amen.