God's Valentine

Valentine

Praise be to God for giving us through Christ every possible spiritual benefit as citizens of Heaven! For consider what he has done—before the foundation of the world he chose us to become, in Christ, his holy and blameless children living within his constant care. He planned, in his purpose of love, that we should be adopted as his own children through Jesus Christ—that we might learn to praise that glorious generosity of his which has made us welcome in the everlasting love he bears towards the Son. (Ephesians 1:3-6)

I was taught the song, Jesus Loves Me, as a young child: “Jesus loves, me, this I know …” And even if you didn’t grow up in church, you probably know how it ends: “ … for the Bible tells me so.” But if you’ve spent any time in church at all, you’ve heard expressed, in some form or another, the idea that God loves us. I believed this for years because, as the song puts it, “the Bible tells me so.” The only problem was that it was a concept I was taught, not something I implicitly knew to be true. For years I “got” God’s love in my head, checked the right answer on the “what God is like” test, but didn’t fully understand it with my heart. And I don’t think I’m the only person who has misunderstood God’s love.

Most of us, to some degree, have a difficult time understanding, believing, or accepting God’s absolute and unlimited love for us. The reasons we don’t receive, trust or even see his love vary from one person to the next, but we all miss out because of it. Perhaps the concept of being wanted by a father is foreign to some. Fortunately, for me, that wasn’t the case. But for some, the only attention you may have received from your dad were the beatings you got because of your disobedience, or because your dad was annoyed. So, your goal in the relationship was to not misbehave or annoy your dad. As a result, you walked on eggshells trying not to upset him.

And the impact of that kind of relationship can have an affect on your relationship with God. For example, you try not to annoy God with your sins, or upset him with your little problems. You’ve had no aspiration of being wanted by God; you’re just happy not to be hated or hurt by him. Sometimes, however, useful lessons can be learned from dads who didn’t exactly model God’s love because dads can teach us discipline, respect, fear and obedience.

Despite my positive upbringing, I began to see how wrong I still remained in my thinking about God. Until I had children. For the first time, and continuing to this day, I get a taste of what I believe God feels toward us. I think about my kids all the time. I pray for them while they sleep at night. I show pictures of my kids to anyone who’ll look. I want to give my kids the world.

My own love, and desire for my kids’ love is so strong that it began to open my eyes to how much God must really desire and love us. Nothing compares to being truly, exuberantly wanted by your children. And through this experience I’ve begun to understand that my desire for my children is only a faint echo of God’s great love for me, and for every person he’s made. I’m just an earthly, sinful father, and I love my kids so much that it hurts sometimes. So, how could I not trust a perfect, heavenly Father who loves me infinitely more than I will ever love my kids?

 Jesus said, “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” (Matt. 7:11) God is more worthy of trust than anyone else, yet for so long I’ve questioned his love and doubted his care and provision for me.

I think that’s because if I could pick a word to describe my feelings about God in those first years of being a Christian, it would be fear. And during that time, any verse that described His overwhelming greatness, or his wrath were easy for me to relate to: It is God who sits above the circle of the earth. (The people below must seem to him like grasshoppers!) He is the one who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and makes his tent from them. He dooms the great men of the world and brings them all to naught. They hardly get started, barely take root, when he blows on them and their work withers, and the wind carries them off like straw. (Jeremiah 40: 22-24) And the result? More fear, leading to guilt and anxiety.

Most Christians have been taught in church, or perhaps by their parents, to set aside a daily time for prayer and Scripture reading. It’s what we’re supposed to do. And so for a long time that’s what I valiantly attempted. When I didn’t, I felt guilty. But over time, I realized that when we love God, we naturally run to him – frequently and enthusiastically. Jesus didn’t command that we have a regular time with him each day. Rather, he told us to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” Jesus called this the “first and greatest commandment.” (Matt. 22:37-38) The results? An intimate time of prayer and study of his Word. But this time motivated by love, not guilt.

This is how God longs for us to respond to his extravagant, unending love: not with a cursory “quiet time” plagued by guilt, but with true love expressed through our lives. Fear is no longer the word I use to describe how I feel about God. Now I use words like reverence. I still fear God, and I pray that I always will because the Bible emphasizes the importance of fearing God. But many of us are plagued by spiritual amnesia. And for a long time, I narrowly focused on his fearsomeness to the exclusion of his great and abounding love. I think the prophet Jeremiah struggled with this same thing, too.

The Lord said to me, “I knew you before you were formed within your mother’s womb; before you were born I sanctified you and appointed you as my spokesman to the world.” “O Lord God,” I said, “I can’t do that! I’m far too young! I’m only a youth!” “Don’t say that,” he replied, “for you will go wherever I send you and speak whatever I tell you to. And don’t be afraid of the people, for I, the Lord, will be with you and see you through.” Then he touched my mouth and said, “See, I have put my words in your mouth! Today your work begins, to warn the nations and the kingdoms of the world.” (Jer. 1:4-10)

This shows God’s intimate knowledge of Jeremiah. And I had always acknowledged his complete sovereignty over me, too, but verses 4 and 5 took it to another level: The Lord said to me, ‘I knew you before you were formed within your mother’s womb; before you were born I sanctified you and appointed you as my spokesman to the world.’ In other words, God knew Jeremiah before Jeremiah was made. God knew Jeremiah before he existed.

God had been with Jeremiah from the start – in fact, from well before the start. He determined what Jeremiah would do before he was even born. But I questioned whether that was also true of me. Maybe all of this pertained just to Jeremiah’s life? You know. Because Jeremiah is so “Old Testament.”

Then I remembered Ephesians 2:10, which tells us that we were created “to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” That verse is meant for me and you and everyone else who’s been saved. My existence is not random, nor was it an accident. God knew who he was creating, and he designed me for a specific work. And God’s next words to Jeremiah assured me that I don’t have to fear failure.

“O Lord God, I said, I can’t do that! I’m far too young! I’m only a youth!” “Don’t say that,” he replied, “for you will go wherever I send you and speak whatever I tell you to. And don’t be afraid of the people, for I, the Lord, will be with you and see you through.” Then he touched my mouth and said, “See, I have put my words in your mouth! Today your work begins, to warn the nations and the kingdoms of the world.”

When Jeremiah voiced his hesitation and fear, God – the God of the galaxies – reached out and touched his mouth. It was a gentle, affectionate gesture, something a loving parent would do. It wasn’t some slap up the side of the head. And through this illustration I began to realize that I don’t have to worry about not meeting his expectations. God will ensure my success in accordance with his plan, not mine. And this is the God we serve, the God who knew us before he made us. The God who promises to remain with us and rescue us. The God who loves us and longs for us to love him back. So why, when we constantly offend him and are so unlovable and unloving, does God persist in loving us?

As kids, doing something offensive generally resulted in punishment, not love. And whether we want to admit it or not, every one of us has offended God at some point. Jesus affirmed that when he said, “No one is good – except God alone.” (Luke 18:19) So why does God still love us, in spite of us? I don’t have an answer to that question. But I do know that if God’s mercy didn’t exist, there’d be no hope. No matter how good we tried to be, we would be punished because of our sins.

A lot of people look at their lives and weigh their sins against their good deeds. But our good deeds can never outweigh the penalty of our sins. God’s mercy, although free, is costly apparel purchased with the blood of Christ. It cannot be earned, and our righteous acts don’t help us deserve it because the wages of sin will always be death. But because of God’s mercy, sin is paid for through the death of Jesus Christ, instead of the death of you and me.

The very fact that a holy, eternal, all-knowing , all-powerful, merciful, fair and just God loves you and me is nothing short of astonishing. The wildest part is that Jesus doesn’t have to love us. His being is utterly complete and perfect, apart from humanity. He doesn’t need me or you, yet he wants us, chooses us, even considers us his inheritance. (Ephesians 1:18)

The greatest knowledge we can ever have is knowing that God treasures us. The holy Creator sees you as his “glorious inheritance.” The irony is that while God doesn’t need us but still wants us, we desperately need God but don’t really want him most of the time. He treasures us and anticipates our departure from this earth to be with him – and we wonder, indifferently, how much we have to do for him to get by.

The Good News – the best news in the world, in fact – is that you can have God himself. Do you believe that God is the greatest thing you can experience in the whole world? Do you believe that the Good News is not merely the forgiveness of your sins, or the guarantee that you won’t go to hell, or the promise of life in heaven? That the best things in life are gifts from the one who steadfastly loves us? Okay, but are we really in love with God, or just his stuff?

Imagine how awful it would feel to have your child say to you, “You know, I don’t really love you or want your love, but I would like my allowance, please.” On the other hand, what a beautiful gift it would be to have the one you love look you in the eye and say, “I love you. Not because of your beauty, or your money, or your family, or your car. Just because of you.” Can we say that to God?

Our love for him always comes out of his love for us. Do you love this God who is everything, or do you just love everything he gives you? Do you really know and believe that God loves you, individually and personally and intimately? Do you see and know him as Abba (Daddy) Father? Loving God comes from an ever-deepening appreciation for the infinite and unfathomable depth of God’s love for us.

You’re God’s Valentine, and the ink of his signature is the blood of his Son.

Grace,

Randy