Hi, and welcome back. We continue with the reflection on the will of God. Today its on God wanting us to know his love for us.
God wants us to know, to understand, and to experience his boundless love for us. This love leads to a peaceful and fulfilling life. But first, what does it mean to know God? Because if we know him, then we can begin to understand his love for us. In the bible, knowing God is gained by experience and relationship (https://www.gotquestions.org/Bible-knowledge.html). It denotes a personal living, and shared experience with Him.
When we know God, we begin to learn about Him, which can help us begin to understand him and help us have a better relationship with Him. This is akin to how a child learns from a parent if they are fortunate to have one in their lives. You live with them, share their lives, and then come to know them, their desires, their nuances, and their heart. This is the same as learning to know God. Knowing him becomes about learning about him in his word, what he likes, what he does not, and ultimately, you begin to discern what is God and what is not Romans 12:2.
Knowing God is not just about having an emotional experience. Yes, sometimes the overflow of our fellowship with him can result in strong emotions, but that forms only part of knowing Him. This is because our emotions are fleeting, and as such a deeper knowledge or fellowship with him is needed to help us continue to trust him when those emotions go away and we have a different reality to contend with.
Knowing God requires a way of doing things different from how the world system expects us- It requires a discipline and ultimately a life of discernment, Romans 12:2. This is rooted in God’s love for us and is what can help our hearts to say no to our natural way of doing things or the fast-paced, self-serving way of our world. Because if we compare what God terms as good or honorable to him in the bible with what our world terms it, they are poles apart.
The bible says in the book of Ephesians 3:19 that God’s love is beyond comprehension. For instance, human love, how some of us have experienced love, differs from how others have. Some have experienced love on such a deep and profound level, while others have not. Human love is generally understood based on the actions it directs towards its recipients. Sometimes we tend to believe we are loved when we do well (like treats given to pets for achieving a goal), and assume we are not when we fail and fall short.
But the bible tells us and gives us a different picture of God’s love that is not based on performance. In Romans 5:8, it says that, “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us”. Romans 5:10 also reiterates that, ” For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life”. Even the parable of the prodigal son corroborates this Luke 15:11-32.
So this tells us that God’s love is not performance-based. His love for us is who he is. God loves us (all of mankind) when we were following our own ways and turned away from him, and he loves us when we turn to him. So he loves us when we are bad, and he loves us even more tenderly when we become his children. So the common denominator is his love. I believe he does not love us any less as sinners, but we learn to experience, to know his love more when we get turned unto him.
Do our sinful ways faze God? Yes and No.
Yes, in the sense that it grieves him, Genesis 6:6, And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart; Ephesians 4:30. The thing is that these actions that we do hurt us as humans, and destroy us, his creation, which hurts him. So, yes, our sinful ways deeply affect God, but they never overwhelm, surprise, or destabilize Him.
And no in the sense of being shocked, caught off guard, or powerless. The Bible lets us know that God exists out of time and is all-knowing, so He knows every sin we will ever commit or anything we will do, even before we do it. As such, the way we live and rebel does not faze him in the sense that it makes him less powerful or less knowledgeable, or even threatened. The Bible tells us that even in his foreknowledge, he went ahead to make provisions for our sins, Romans 5:10.
God created us and knows that after the fall (see the last post), the very inclination of the thoughts of man is evil. We are the ones who think that what we have done is so unpardonable, not so with God. He knows our very thoughts and our weaknesses.
Does that mean that God endorses a sinful lifestyle? most certainly not. He said in 1 John 2:3-9 that as his children, those who have accepted him as savior and Lord, should not continue to live a sinful lifestyle. Why? because now, we know him, and to know him is to live a different kind of life. It means that in knowing him, we now begin to discern, to understand his love for us, his mind for us, which is to live differently than we were living before. We become yoked with him, Matthew 11:28-30. In this new setup, he does all the heavy lifting while he helps us to navigate this world with his word and his Holy Spirit. The truth is that I am learning about God’s love everyday, to know him, to understand him and to trust him even though there is so much I do not know.
Also, when we live a sinful lifestyle, our fellowship with him begins to suffer. Remember, sin ushers in fear, shame, and condemnation, which tends to push us away from God. As we have seen in the lives of Adam and Eve. And if our fellowship with him suffers, so does our relationship with him. It can lead to a hardness of heart. Our hearts represent the core of our souls, who we are. A hardness of heart happens when we gradually and continually give in to the evil inclination (Genesis 6:5), and our souls begin to build up layer after layer of resistance to the Holy Spirit. Because sin tricks the self into thinking it is safe and autonomous, while actually numbing the soul. If we continue long enough, we revert to our old ways.
God wants us to know him in this sense so that we guard against this deceitfulness, Hebrews 3:13, 1 John 1:7-10. The reason is that the same way the devil deceived mankind in the beginning is still the same way he deceives us, children of God today. And the Bible lets us know that there is a way that seems right unto man, but the end of it is the way of destruction, Proverbs 16:25, and Proverbs 14:12.
How can we know that our hearts are beginning to harden towards God’s love? We stop being able to perceive in our spirits and start to become insensitive to grieving the Holy Spirit, we also become prideful and unteachable. As Christians, we need to have a sensitive heart to God; that is how we can know him and experience his love for us.
However, if you have not accepted Him as Savior and Lord, then you do not know him, so you may continue to live a sinful life, but know that it’s not the good, acceptable, and perfect will he has for you. The Bible says God has already prepared a way for you to escape the destruction that awaits every unrepentant person. It would be a shame not to take advantage of his great offer of salvation, Revelation 13:8.
The good news is that if you choose to be drawn into him, all you have to do is simply believe in him and be saved. How? You may ask, well, have you heard of Jesus? Jesus is the fruit of God’s love for us, John 3:16. God in man form. Jesus is the only way, the truth, and the life. Only in him is there salvation, Acts 4:112.
If you believe that God is calling you today, you can just say this prayer: “Dear God, I am a sinner, and I admit that I do things my way. Please forgive me, I believe in you, accept me in Jesus name. Romans 10:9-10
If you have said this prayer and believe in your heart, then your life will never be the same again. The next thing you need to do urgently is to get into a Bible-based church because you will need discipleship in your new life. You can also get in touch with me, as I would love to hear from you.
God bless you and contact me if you want, I would love to hear from you.