The Loving and Compassionate God

"Though the mountains be shaken, and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed." says the Lord who has compassion on you.

Isaiah 54:10

Hello friends and happy February! I associate this month with love. Not the commercialized love with flowers, chocolates, and expensive gifts that we give on St. Valentine's Day. I am talking about love in general. And with the thought of love in mind, one normally thinks of the source of love, which is God.

After all, God is the God of love and compassion. God's love for us was proven on the cross where Jesus died. There is no argument against it. And just as the song 1000 reasons by Matt Redman and Steve Anguiano sings, "You are rich in love and your slow to anger. Your name is great and your heart is kind."

So why, in some cases, is God depicted as a wrathful God with strict rules for you to follow in order for you to get into heaven? Where is the grace? The love? The compassion? "Well, if God was a good and loving God He wouldn't allow bad things to happen." That is one thing that I have personally heard.

And what if He did mediate everything? What if not a single bad thing happened to you? So, you would just live your life with no problems, right? And what would you gain from that?

First off, He would have to control us because if people can make their own decisions then they will naturally do bad things to others. Also, there would be no room for human error because that could lead to bad things. Example: if someone in a restaurant forgot to check the date on a package of food, prepared it, and someone else got sick because of that, that would be bad.

So, there you have it. The problem is solved. We would be just robots with no emotions, thoughts, or movements of our own. If that were the case, what would be the point in even creating us? God created us so that He could have something to love, but would control really be love at all?

And who says that some bad things that happen to us aren't compassion? God is all knowing. He knows who needs the gentleness of compassion and when they need it and who could use a bit more of… a kick in the rump I guess I could say. This, most of the time (in my personal experience), is a desperate attempt to get our attention. And depending on the situation, sometimes He can capture our attention with a gentle touch, and another times, He has to get our attention in other ways. But it’s all for our good. It's all in love. Just like how a mother might smack their child's hand who is about to touch a hot stove eye.

And the Bible says that if we share in His sufferings, we share in His glory. How could we have glory and not suffering? The truth of the matter is that God knows exactly why things are the way they are and He has His reasons. And just like what we learned in the Romans Series last month; we are a lump of clay and He is the potter. The lump of clay doesn't look up at the potter and say, "What are you doing? You should do this not that."

That, my friends, is where faith comes in. Have faith that God knows what He is doing and He has compassion on those who love Him. Besides He's given us the best display of compassion of all - Jesus. Who of the mythical 'gods' would do that? - Send their only son to die for mortals so that they can become eternal. Try to tell me now that God isn't a loving God.

I think that alone is enough reason to smile today. Don't you? We are saved by grace by a loving and compassionate God who calls us His children.