Cryptic Portraits of God’s Love—A CONDUIT For GOD’S BLESSINGS

 

 

 

For years it had been hard for me to believe that God loved me. Besides, I couldn’t trust in a God who might not love me. Perhaps He would save me but only reluctantly. I understood His promises but doubted that they could apply to me:

·       Ephesians 3:19 …to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

However, in time, I slowly became convinced that that did apply to me as I began to see glorious portraits of God’s love for all who would come to Him. Not only would He love me, but He would watch over me as He had with Abraham:

·       Genesis 12:3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Since He would curse those that had dishonored me, I would never seek revenge but I would trust in Him who would defend me:

·       Romans 12:19–21 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.” [Romans 13:1-5] To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink…Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

I became convinced that He would also make me a channel of blessing to those my life had touched. Yahweh had assured Abraham that even if there were only 10 righteous people in Sodom, He would spare it as Abraham had prayed:

·       Genesis 18:32 Then [Abraham] said, “Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak again but this once. Suppose ten [righteous] are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of ten I will not destroy it.”

Even though 10 righteous could not be found in Sodom, God knew Abraham’s concern for the family of Lot and saved them even though they were unworthy of Him. Perhaps also my growing sense of unworthiness wouldn’t hinder the grace of God.

I began to see the love of God for His children. He had promised Jeremiah that if he could find just one truth seeker in Jerusalem He would spare it from the Babylonian onslaught:

·       Jeremiah 5:1 “Search [Jerusalem’s] squares to see if you [Jeremiah] can find a man, one who does justice and seeks truth, that I may pardon her.”

Each of His children was so precious to God that He would spare that city because of that one. Similarly, if there is just one believer, God would regard as holy the entire family:

·       1 Corinthians 7:14 For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.

God’s net is so broad that He even wants to include unbelievers in some mysterious way. I began to see that His net would even include me and even the unrepentant to induce them to turn from their sins. God is even merciful towards those who refuse to turn from their sins. In the two examples of those who have been dis-fellowshipped, they would only have to confess their sins and to turn from them:

·       1 Timothy 1:19–20 holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith, among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.

·       1 Corinthians 5:5 you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.

In both of these cases, dis-fellowship had been a reflection of God’s love in hope of restoration. How reassuring it is to know that all who come to Him are highly loved, blessed, and a blessing to others who might be kind to God’s children:

·       Matthew 10:40-42 “Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me. The one who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and the one who receives a righteous person because he is a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward. And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.”

We are so beloved by our Savior Jesus that any who bless us will be blessed and any who harm us will be harmed:

·       Corinthians 3:17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.

I am now convinced that not only am I God’s beloved temple but also that I have become a conduit of God’s blessings to those around me. As a prisoner, Paul was being shipped to Rome to stand trial. However, the boat was blindsided by a horrible storm. After a week or two of battling the storm, the sailor was ready to give up all hope of survival. However, they hadn’t counted on the blessed presence of one of their prisoners:

·       Acts 27:22-24 “Yet now I [Paul] urge you to take heart, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship. For this very night there stood before me an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I worship, and he said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul; you must stand before Caesar. And behold, God has granted you all those who sail with you.’”

It all unraveled just as Paul said it would. We are blessings to those around us but are barely aware of this fact. No longer do we need to prove to the world that we are of great worth. While some will hate us for this, others will love us (2 Corinthians 2:14-16). Nor could King David hardly believe in the restorative grace of God after his sin with Bathsheba and killing her husband. Despite his prayers, the Lord took his first child with Bathsheba. The second one he named Shlomo, meaning “peace,” in what might have been seen as a vain hope that now there would be peace with God:

·       2 Samuel 12:24–25 Then David comforted his wife, Bathsheba, and went in to her and lay with her, and she bore a son, and he called his name Solomon [Shlomo]. And the LORD loved him and sent a message by Nathan the prophet. So he called his name Jedidiah [“beloved of God”], because of the LORD.

God had reassured David that He was able to do exceedingly abundantly above anything that David had hoped. Our God is able to take the worse sin-stained people and relationships and convert them into something beautiful, and I was reassured that He could do that for me.
I now rejoice that God loves me and will fulfill His plan for my life (Psalm 57). Nothing is any more important than this knowledge. How precious is our Lord!