Loved to Love
God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear,
even though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though its waters roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with its swelling.
There is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High. God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved; God shall help her, just at the break of dawn. The nations raged, the kingdoms were moved; He uttered His voice, the earth melted. The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.
Psalm 46:1-7
Is God your shelter and protection?
When God is our refuge we never have to fear no matter what is going on in the world around us, for our hope is not in this world. Our hope isn’t in the absence of trouble in this world. Our hope is in the God who planted the earth and can remove it, who makes the mountains shake and the waters roar. The river that flows in the holy place is not moved because God helps her. Our only shelter and protection is God who makes the earth melt by the whispers of His voice and fortifies the streams in the tabernacle. The whole earth cannot satisfy us or protect us, but to dwell in the city of God and be nourished by its streams will make us glad.
God actually cares about you.
Reflect for a moment on how amazing it is that the God of the universe cares for you. The whole earth melts at his voice. How much smaller are we than the whole earth. Yet God cares for us with a great love. Words cannot rightly state the enormity of God’s love and the minusculity of our entire lives, let alone the individual decisions we labor over. And yet God’s love is bigger; He actually cares about us and all the decisions we make. “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” (1 John 4:11). As we ponder the meaning of God’s love for us, it drives us to loving one another. Love is the medicine of life, if it doesn’t seem to be working, increase the dosage.
The debt of your sin is infinite; the payment for your sin is also infinite.
“By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” (1 John 3:16). Since God’s holiness is beyond measure, the sin we commit against His holiness is immeasurably wicked, no matter which sin it is. The weight of our sin is great, but the love of God is greater still. He loved us enough to sacrifice His life for us. He did this not because He had to but because He wanted to. He directed His great love toward someone as insignificant as me and you for no other reason than that He wanted to. You and I can and should give glory to God for what He has done, and we should love our fellow man because of God’s love for us. However, God does not need us to return glory to Him, nor does it add any glory to an already infinitely glorious God. We return glory to God and love our fellow man because we want to. When we have been loved so much, we will want to love as well.