Tag Archives: Your Relationship with God

God Loves Justice

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Miller Jamison attended a family gathering at his mom’s. She was making her famous macaroni and cheese, and nothing could keep him away from his mother’s macaroni and cheese. His grandmother was visiting, and the house was packed with friends and family. When Miller walked through the door, his grandmother was ecstatic to see her grandson. Beaming with excitement, she jumped up from her chair, grabbed him close and gave him a big ol’ hug. Miller was happy to see her too, but her presence reminded him that his grandfather wasn’t there. It conjured up hurtful feelings that have been the most painful of any Miller has ever experienced in his life. 

He had intended to focus only on how great it would be to eat good food and to see his grandmother and everyone else. He thought he had managed to put the anger about the death of his grandfather far away from his mind, at least enough to enjoy a good meal with his grandmother, who he hadn’t seen in months. It was not to be. The man that had caused his grandfather’s death was never prosecuted. His mother told Miller repeatedly to leave it in the Lord’s hands, but he had turned his back on faith, and continues to carry both rage and grief over his grandfather’s death. He’s not sleeping through the night, and at times he’s short tempered and easily agitated. His grandfather was a gentle soul, and for many people, he was a bedrock of strength and wisdom. Miller didn’t understand God’s justice, and he blamed God for not preventing the death of the best person he had ever known.  

In the Old Testament, God said in Jeremiah 9:23-24(NLT), “23 Don’t let the wise boast in their wisdom, or the powerful boast in their power, or the rich boast in their riches. 24 But those who wish to boast should boast in this alone: that they truly know me and understand that I am the LORD who demonstrates unfailing love and who brings justice and righteousness to the earth, and that I delight in these things. I, the LORD, have spoken!” 

In verse 23, God checks those who were walking around feeling superior over their own wisdom, power, and wealth. We probably see far more of this today than those that were living during biblical days. Humanity has advanced to a degree that probably far exceeds the imagination and expectation of most. There’s no doubt that there are very smart people in our world and they’re doing remarkable things, but God tells us that this is no reason to boast. There’s only one thing that anyone should brag and boast about, and it is that they know our almighty and powerful God. 

He wants us to know Him. He tells us in verse 24 of this passage that He wants us to understand who He is and what He loves. He is our Heavenly Father, and He demonstrates unfailing love, the kind of love that never wavers. He brings justice and righteousness to the earth, and this is a truth that needs to marinate in our brain cells. Without God bringing justice and righteousness, there would be none. History has proven what happens when people turn their backs on God’s Word and refuse to abide in His righteousness. They do unthinkably evil things, and we’ve witnessed incredible tragedies by the hands of people that crave power and wealth and will stop at nothing to have those things. We might think God turns a blind eye to this, but that is never the case.

In Isaiah 55:9(NLT), God said, “For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.” God’s thoughts are so much higher than ours that we can’t define or calculate the difference.Without God’s intervention, and left to our own devices, we would see things from an extremely narrow perspective. Our vision is exponentially limited, but God sees the entire picture. We must trust Him and His justice, because God knows the past, present, and future. Miller wanted vengeance for his grandfather’s death, but he knew his grandfather would never have wanted that. He didn’t want to cause his grandmother and mother any more pain, but Miller felt trapped by his emotions and circumstances, and it was eating him up inside. 

Quite often, deep pain and anger are rooted in a person’s refusal to accept that life is out of their control. This is what vengeance is about. It’s an extreme need to punish for a wrong in a way that makes us feel in control. Vengeance never achieves its intended purpose. Romans 12:19(ESV), “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” God’s justice is righteous, and vengeance belongs to Him alone. We must have faith that He will take care of those who do wrong. 

There are only two choices we can make in life. We can trust God and have faith in His Word, or we can choose to live and operate outside of faith in God. Choosing against faith is the equivalent of fear. It’s trusting our own devices rather than trusting God, and this is never a winning strategy. The choice regarding faith or fear is completely and utterly left to us. God will not force us to choose His love, just as He will not stop people when they make the choice to do things that He doesn’t like. We get to choose who we are going to be. We can live a life without loving God, or we can choose to love Him. If we choose to love God, we must have faith in Him, because Hebrews 11:6 tells us that we can’t please God without faith. 

Faith is always the answer for any heaviness we endure in life. We are not in control, and this is a reality that faith demands we accept. God is the One with the master plan, and nothing is too big for Him to solve. He told His people in Exodus 15:26 (NLT), “If you will listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in his sight, obeying his commands and keeping all his decrees, then I will not make you suffer any of the diseases I sent on the Egyptians; for I am the LORD who heals you.”

God takes care of everything. We should trust this even when we do not understand how He moves. We couldn’t possibly know all that God is doing, but He commands that we focus our hearts and minds on His goodness. We can’t do this if we are consumed with anger and rage. Psalm 7:11(ESV) says, “God is a righteous judge, and a God who feels indignation every day.” God is angry with the wicked every day, but He is also an extremely patient God. He’s patient with us, and He is patient with those who do not follow Him. He wants us to know this so that we are confident in His goodness. 

God requires us to be imitators of Him. We are to be patient and have faith in His judgment, because His judgment is never wrong. Through God’s righteous judgment, He demonstrates that His timing is divine and perfect. No one gets away with anything, and on this we can depend. We will all reap what we sow. Our God is just and righteous, and both belong to Him. He delights in them. So, we must reject fear and the desire for vengeance and place our faith in the perfection of God’s sovereignty and rule. When we surrender totally to Him in this way, He will comfort our hearts through His Spirit, and replace our anger with His peace. ■

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved. 

“God Loves Justice”, written for DomesticAbuseAwareness.Org ©2023. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord!

God’s Love Doesn’t Hurt

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A very good friend of mine has recently endured a tremendous amount of turmoil by the person she was in love with. Because his intention was to injure her at all costs, she feels completely broken, bewildered, afraid, and alone. This is truly not the way God wants His sons and daughters to live. He sent His only begotten Son to set us free, and a life of liberty is our right through the Lord Jesus Christ. God wants the best for us, and it isn’t His will that we’re punished by anyone. He doesn’t want us suffering any kind of abuse; emotional, mental, verbal, or physical. Love does not abuse.

1John 4:8(NLT) tells us, “But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” Our Heavenly Father is the definitive authority on love because He IS love. He knows how love should feel and what it can do. There’s no greater power in the earth than His love. He tells us in 1Corinthians 13 that we can know all His secrets and mysteries, but if we don’t have His love in our hearts, we won’t amount to anything. This is all we need to know about how important love is. It’s the way God intended life to be lived. We’re His kids, and He wants us to love others the way that He loves us.

God informs us so much about His love in His Word because He doesn’t want us to be ignorant about it. John 10:10 makes it clear that we have an enemy, the devil, and he is a thief, murderer, deceiver, and destroyer. Subtle deception is one of the tools in his arsenal; he’s a counterfeiter, adept at tricking us into believing that something false is the real thing. This happens quite a bit in our love relationships. It’s natural to want to give love and receive it in return. Sometimes we allow this need to be fed by a person that can’t reciprocate love in a healthy way. We make this mistake because we haven’t learned enough about God’s love from His Word. We haven’t made His standard the one by which we recognize and understand love.

My friend says that she will never love again, but it isn’t clear that what she felt for her abuser was indeed love, at least not the kind that comes from Heavenly Father. 1Thessalonians 5:5 (NLT) tells us, “For you are all children of the light and of the day; we don’t belong to darkness and night.” God’s love brings us into the light, so that we are not bamboozled by the enemy. His love opens our eyes to what real and true love is.

When we learn to love God’s way, we don’t have to be afraid of loving anyone, because 1John 4:18 tells us that God’s love will cast out fear. We begin to walk in the rich truth of this verse as we study and meditate on God’s Word. The more we know about His love, the more the indwelling Holy Spirit will help us to mature and grow into the people that God wants us to be. The Holy Spirit does this work within us as we commit ourselves to love God’s way.

1Corinthians 13:4-5(NLT) tells us, “Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged.” Love does not hurt. It encourages, inspires and motivates the giver and the receiver to love more. This is what we should learn from the example of Jesus Christ. Through his life, ministry, and sacrifice, we see the Father’s heart. He wants us to know that there’s a difference between love and fear, so that we can choose to give and receive His brand of love and walk in the freedom and wisdom that it brings. ■

Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

“God’s Love Doesn’t Hurt” written by Kyrenee  for DomesticAbuseAwareness.Org ©2017. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord!

Your Christ Identity

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In Matthew 16:13 (NLT), Jesus asked the disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”  This question that Jesus posed to the disciples was not to inquire about opinions of folks like the Pharisees and Sadducees, who were always unsuccessfully trying to find loopholes in his truth. He wanted to know the opinions of the common people, those who were not considered by high society to be upper-crust, but just hard-working people who cared for their families and those they loved. These were the people that spoke freely about their opinions to the disciples, and it is not too farfetched to say that the opinions and thoughts of these folks might have rubbed off on them.

The disciples replied to the question Jesus asked them in verse 14. They said, “some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, and others say Jeremiah or one of the other prophets.” Then, in verse 15 of this same chapter, Jesus Christ asked the disciples, “But who do you say I am?” The disciples had been with Jesus throughout his ministry. They had witnessed him heal the sick, restore sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf; they watched as he cast out demonic spirits from those oppressed by them. They saw some pretty miraculous stuff from the Master, yet when it came to his true identity, some of them were a little stumped.

In terms of a person’s identity, we like to label them with adjectives. Maybe they’re a nice, compassionate person like Jesus is, and this might be one way that we identify them. The truth is that a person will always be more than the adjectives we use to define them, and Jesus was and is more extraordinary than any words in our human vocabulary.

It is interesting to note that until this particular dialogue with them, Jesus had not said outright to the disciples who he was. He allowed His works to speak to his identity. What a wonderful concept. Of course, Jesus Christ knew what the people thought of him more than they knew it themselves. He didn’t need the disciples to tell him what the people were thinking, but he was on a mission. The truth was in the flesh before the disciples’ very eyes, and it was important to the Master that they confess the reality of it.

In verse 16 Simon Peter said, “You’re the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus Christ was well pleased in Peter’s declaration, and he blessed him greatly. Peter had opened his heart to Heavenly Father and received a download that brought amazing truth and clarity to the moment. Praise God that this record is in His Word! Our Master Jesus teaches us here that it is important to #1 know our identity, and #2 have those we love know and respect it too.

When we don’t know who we are or why we’re here on this earth, life can be incredibly challenging. Things like confidence, self-love, and happiness are clothed in self-identity, and these attributes make life a thing of beauty. Some of us look to receive these goodies from another person. We look outside ourselves for something that can only be found within.

Jesus Christ gave his life so that we could be connected to God for an eternity. He wanted us to know that he pleased God and did so many wonderful things on earth because he was empowered by the Holy Spirit to accomplish those things. Jesus Christ made it possible for us to have the gift of the Holy Spirit as well. Ephesians 2:18(NLT) tells us that because of Christ, “Now all of us can come to the Father through the same Holy Spirit because of what Christ has done for us.”

1John 2:27 tells us that we have received the Holy Spirit and he, the Spirit, lives inside of us. 1 Corinthians 6:19 tells us that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. This verse also tells us that we don’t belong to ourselves, we belong to God. We gave ourselves to Him when we accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, and asked him to live inside our hearts.

When the disciples understood that Christ was the Messiah, they understood that the Savior of the world was among them; that the purest and most powerful love in the universe was actually in a flesh and blood vessel, walking and talking with them daily. It’s a wonder they were able to contain themselves. In effect, Jesus told them, “Guess what guys, I’m here to do the work my Father sent me to do, so that you can have what I have and you can do the things that I do! I’m doing this for you because I love you so much, and I want you to love each other the way that I love you.”

The Holy Spirit isn’t in some abstract location saying to us, “Hey, you, I’m over here. I’ll be busy doing some other things, and when you need me come find me.”  God sent His Son to give his life so that we could have the gift of the Holy Spirit operating inside of us. The Word declares that he’s our Friend, Comforter, Teacher, Advocate, and Guide. He helps us in all the right and best ways because he has a ringside seat of exactly what we need, when we need it. He pours on the power, strength, and love; all we need to do is ask him, TRUST him, and move out of his way.

Knowing what an extraordinary gift from God the Holy Spirit is, you can see how strange it is to look outside of our temples when all the help, love, strength, comfort, and power we need is on the inside of our beings. As followers of Christ and lovers of Heavenly Father, we show our gratitude to God by acknowledging our faith and trust in His provision. The absolute best way to help ourselves is to trust in God in Christ, and trust in the power and gift of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus Christ is our example, and our identity can only be known through him. His life, ministry, sacrifice, and resurrection teaches us who God desires us to be. It also teaches us that it is possible to be a light in this dark world and to live fully, with the love of Christ in our hearts. God spared not His only begotten Son to come to earth and to show us what being human is all about. We had no clue, but because of Christ, we know the heart of God’s intention for us; we know God’s Will.

It is a beautiful thing to realize that our identity is in Christ. Galatians 2:20 (NLT) declares, “My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Our prayer for you is that you will begin to get excited about discovering your destiny in Christ. It is so much more than you imagined. The more you learn about Jesus Christ, the more you will learn about the real you. You will grow in confidence as you realize that his power truly is at work in your life, and he is willing to give you all the power, strength, and love that you need. ■

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

“Your Christ Identity” written by Fran for DomesticAbuseAwareness.Org ©2017. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord!