Monday, January 3, 2011

January 3 A God with Feelings

Genesis 6:6 The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain.
The question that Smith poses is this: When I repeatedly disappoint God, do I understand that I have genuinely and truly broken his heart?

The point of today's entry is, in a nutshell, that God feels, that he has emotions.  Remember, we are made in his image, the image of one who loves.  I know that, growing up, I heard a lot about the wrath and anger of God, that he hated sin and sinners.  However, I did not hear all that much about his love other than John 3:16 - He loved me enough to give his son to die in my place to pay for my sin.  And that seemed to be the end of any discussion about God's love.  The loudest voices around seemed to be emphasizing God's wrath and anger, not his love.

I have come to understand that I have emotions because God first had emotions; I can love because God loved first.  As a daughter, mother, a sister, a wife, a friend, I have come to some understanding of love.  Love means a willingness to sacrifice; it means a desire for the well-being of the loved one, and it also means anger at those who would harm the loved one.  Furthermore it means that the lover is grieved when ill comes into the life of the loved one, whether that ill is caused by someone hurting the loved one or the loved one's own choices.

This passage speaks about that, being grieved when his children have made wrong choices.  This is not the only passage though that speaks of God as being grieved; Ephesians 4:30 encourages us to not grieve the Holy Spirit.  That is a powerful thought, a huge responsibility, to know that my behavior can bring sadness to the heart of God.

Yesterday I said something about making God smile.  It is true that as we can grieve God, we can bring joy, smiles to his heart.  Years ago, I read the book IN HIS PRESENCE.  I need to cultivate an awareness that I am always in his presence and whatever I do matters to him and causes him to feel something in response because I do not want to grieve him, I want to make him smile in pleasure and satisfaction.

3 comments:

  1. Yes, this was a good reminder to me as well. I often forget God is a person who can grieve as well as feel pleasure. I would never want to disappoint or hurt my husband or the others in my life who I love and cherish, but I can easily grieve the one who created me and gave me everlasting life.

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  2. I just lost my whole post when I selected 'preview.' :( Too late to retype it.

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  3. The Readers' Digest version of my lost post is:

    Hosea 11:1-8 speaks of God's love and despair over Israel. God's fatherly love grips my heart as I read these verses:

    "When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I have called my son...I led them with cords of kindness, with the bands of love and I became as one who eases the yoke ...I bent down to them and fed them...(an interlude when He refers to their unwillingness to return to Him, then this heart wrenching cry that anyone with a prodigal child or spouse can identify with...) How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel...My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender."

    Remember, too, that Jesus was called the man of sorrows; throughout the old testament God mourns for the lack of love His chosen ones refused Him. He knows the broken heart, the pain of rejection, the alone-ness of abandonment. He is able to comfort us so well because he has already known generations of the same pains we suffer and He gave us II Corinthians 1:3-5. The world is in such need of COMFORT - our families are hurting; our friends are hurting; our communities are hurting; our nation is hurting.

    The God of all comfort, the man of sorrows, waits to extend that comfort to others....through us.

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