HOW GOD FEELS ABOUT US (Pt 1)

We are sometimes presented with a harsh, legalistic, and judgmental image of God, but that portrayal is not an accurate representation of Him.

God is kind and loving, and He wants a relationship of love with you and every person created.

However, love requires several things—freedom, risk, and choice. And God chose to subject Himself to the same emotional relational roller-coaster ride love subjects every person to—the possibility of rejection and heartbreak.

If you listen to the heart of God conveyed through the Old Testament prophets, God uses many relational metaphors so that we might understand how He feels about us.

God pours out his heart to Jeremiah the prophet when the people He loves keep rejecting Him to love and worship other things.

“I have loved you with an everlasting love. I have drawn you with unfailing kindness. . .  Are you not my dear son, the child in whom I delight? … Therefore my heart yearns for you; I have great compassion for you,” declares the LORD. (Jeremiah 31 :3, 20)  

“I would love to treat you as my own children ! I wanted nothing more than to give you this beautiful land— the finest possession in the world. I looked forward to your calling Me “Father,” and I wanted you never to turn from Me. But you have been unfaithful to Me. » (Jeremiah 3:19–20)  

God loves us like a father loves a wayward child. Even though we rebel and run away, or break his heart, God does not desire to condemn. His Father’s heart yearns to show compassion, to forgive and take us back.

Our God is a wonderful and just God who, even though He knows our every thoughts and deeds, still holds out forgiveness and mercy and compassion towards us, because of a desire for loving relationship.

When a woman caught in adultery was brought to the Lord by the religious leaders who wanted to condemn her and stone her to death, He said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”

They all dropped their rocks and left. “Has no one condemned you?” Jesus asked the woman. “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you. Go now and sin no more.” (John 8 :2–11).

“The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love… He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear Him ; as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him.” (Psalm 103)

The heart of God for all people is that of a loving Father who would do anything to have his kids come home.

So why would we ever stay away when He is waiting with open arms for us to come back to Him ?