Greetings in Christ,
When people talk of God often time, they bring with them their concept of what they think God should be, or how He should act. For example, when things do not go their way, they think God is punishing them, or when things go their way, they feel they are being blessed by Him. When a person dies at an early age, they blame God for taking them too soon, or if they have physical/medical issues why would God curse them with this problem. They form their own opinion of what God should be, and how He should act.
The theme that seems to surface more times than not is God should be a God of love. If God is a God of love, why does He let all these things happen to me and to the world? Why doesn’t He just swoop in and fix all the problems, end all the wars, cure disease, and provide food for the hungry? This thought process is one which drives God to be one sided to be giving all the time, caring all the time and ready to serve at any moment. This concept of God is one which is selfish on behalf of people who want everything to go their way. The idea God is love is correct, but to let it be the only attribute of God is a worldly view which takes who God is out of context.
While God is a God of love, He does not let things happen to people to get even or to tempt people. He does not set up traps for people to fall into, nor to get tripped up so He can laugh at them for failing. The God of love allows people to make decisions in their life. Many of those decisions were made in the past and currently in the present has led people of this world to desire the things which separate them from God. The choices people make separate them from God, and those choices often have consequences which people do not like. People in this world live in the consequences of those bad decisions made many years ago along with the present choices separate them from God. People are living in the shadows of their ancestors and even their own sins.
The real God of love desires for us to separate ourselves from the world so we can be righteous in His sight, and that does not mean we will get everything we desire or have everything go our way. If we really understand God, we will see God is a God of love, but this is only one of His attributes. We first must understand God is holy first which out of His holiness the other attributes follow. It is in this holiness God decides what is best for us, and then He guides us in this path of righteousness.
The author of Hebrews writes to establish the path of righteousness many had followed, and they encouraged many others to follow the same path. While the author gives the picture of those witnesses surrounding us, we still must live in this world which is sin depraved. This world is filled with those bad decisions which lay and wait to trip us up and separate us from God, but we must look to Jesus for our hope and in faith follow the example He gave us to follow.
While we are not perfect, we will not always be able to attain perfect righteousness all the time, but if we believe and have faith in God, He will guide us back. This is the part many people get tripped up in their thoughts of God, God is a God of discipline when we start going in the wrong direction.
To truly understand God, we must first accept He cannot associate with any sin or sinful acts. He remains holy and true to His character, and out of this He disciplines those who truly want to follow Jesus’ example of righteousness. It is out of the discipline the sin is revealed and can be removed, but this does not mean it will be pleasant when it takes place.
God is a God of love, but it is not the love most people desire. God’s love is one which results from being holy and separated from sin. This does not mean people will get their way all the time, nor will the troubles of this world go away. What it does mean if we really want to be like Jesus, we can have faith God will discipline us so we can be holy just as He is holy. When we seek to be holy above all else, we will see God to be a God of love.
“O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth, who have displayed Your splendor above the heavens! From the mouth of infants and nursing babes You have established strength because of Your adversaries, to make the enemy and the revengeful cease. When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained; what is man that You take thought of him, and the son of man that You care for him? Yet You have made him a little lower than God, and You crown him with glory and majesty! You make him to rule over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, whatever passes through the paths of the seas. O Lord, our Lord, How majestic is Your name in all the earth!” Psalm 8
Lord, may we seek to be holy. If we need Your discipline, may we see it as a Father who loves us so much, and He does not want to see us separated from Him. Amen
Blessings,