Tuesday, October 23, 2012

God's Love

As we run we have some pretty good talks about God and people. I've gotten inspiration for many sermons and sermon illustrations on these dark mornings on Rushing Road. Today is just another example of God speaking to us through believers. (Remember, that's one of the ways God speaks according to Blackaby's "Experiencing God.")

I really don't remember exactly what we were talking about but my running buddy said, "Do you think God will ever learn?" He wasn't being disrespectful to God but was pointing out that we wouldn't be as persistent as God is. You know how God continues to have faith in the church to carry out the Great Commission? Or how he is ready to forgive the repentant, even repeating, sinner? Or how he continues to bless us even when we don't get it right. The conversation wasn't along those lines exactly but that's a good application of the thought.

So he says, "When I was a kid I slammed my hand in a car door. One time. I never did it again." That was in the context of "Do you think God will ever learn?"

I gathered my breath and in a little while said, "If we loved getting in the car as much as God loves us, we'd get our hands slammed in the door more often." We ran in silence for a few seconds.

Think about how much God loves you. John 3:16 says that he loves you enough to send his only son Jesus to die for your sins so you won't have to. Romans 5:8 says that he did this even before anyone placed faith for salvation in Jesus and his sacrifice, while we still enjoyed our sin.

Sometimes love hurts. Like slamming your hand in a car door. At some point the pain hurts more than the joy so we keep our hand out of the car door or off the hot stove. Or we keep our hearts out of relationships. Or we give up on somebody. But we miss the joy.

God must have decided that the joy of loving us was greater than the pain of loving us. I'm glad he did.

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