A Saturday Morning Observation

Okay, first an admission. Even though I spend quite a bit of time every week preparing each Sunday's message, I have never been good at writing otherwise, despite my best intentions. I started to write a book about three years ago but as of today it sits in limbo in my computer. I have three or four journals lying about the house, but if you were to pick one up and open it you will find the first thirty or forty pages filled at the front but the rest of the pages are blank. In short, I don't appear to be very disciplined at writing on a consistent basis.

So, I have decided not to hold myself to write on a consistent basis, but to write as I feel impressed to, be it once a week, a few times a week, or once or twice a month. In the end I only want to write what I feel God impressing me to write. So, here's my thoughts on a Saturday morning after reading a portion of Job.

I was struck by what Job wrote in verse 17 of chapter 7. Job is in his early stages of suffering. In chapter 7 Job complains about God as if He were some harsh taskmaster. But it is what Job said in verse 17 that caused me to pause, "What is a mere human, that you think so highly of him." While I believe Job was saying this out of his misery, it is what he said that launched me into thought.

Who are we that You, God, should spend so much of your time thinking about us? This recalls David's psalm (psalm 8) when David exclaims, "When I observe Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You set in place, what is a human being that You remember him, a son of man that You look after him?" David uses the remaining verses in his psalm to answer this ponderous question (verses 5-9).

I do not in any way profess to know God's thoughts (Isaiah 55:8), and sometimes I wonder why God hasn't become so frustrated and angry with us that He decided to scrap the whole plan of mankind, but He didn't, He hasn't. Why? Who are we that You should think so highly of us, continue to love us and care for us, even when we constantly turn our backs to You and cast You aside like so much rubbish? The answer is found within the very nature of God Himself. Listen to the words of Exodus 34:6-7 as the Lord passed by Moses:

"The Lord—the Lord is a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love and truth, maintaining faithful love to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, rebellion, and sin."

That's it! God cannot be anything other than who He is. He is slow to anger (thank you Lord!). He is full to overflowing, literally "weighty" if faithful love and truth, even when we spend so much of our life being faithless and waddle in untruth. His love is faithful at all times, despite our faithlessness. And He constantly forgives our rebelliousness, our iniquities, rebellion, and sin. Why? Because it is who He is. John stated it so simply and distinctly with just three words, "God is love" (1 John 4:8). It is as Corrie Ten Boom exclaimed, "there is no pit so deep that God's love is not deeper still" God is the very definition and essence of true love, pure love. And it is out of this deep well of love that He continuously pours Himself on us. Selah.