God gives each of us a measure of faith. But you must develop it by building yourself up on your most holy faith. Faith under attack is faith under construction. It's in the battles of life that you discover whether you have nurtured faith or neglected faith!
We find it easy to love people who are easy to love. In reality, we tend to like people who are like us. Furthermore, we assume that God’s love is bound by the same standards. If He loves us, we assume it must mean that we are not all that bad. Not only is this view false in every way, it destroys a deep appreciation for the amazing beauty of God’s love — that He loved the unlovely, and died for the unloving.
D. A. Carson illustrated the difference between our vision of love and God’s:
Charles and Susan are walking down the beach, hand in hand. They’ve kicked off their shoes and the wet sand squishes between their toes. Charles turns to Susan, gazes deeply into her large hazel eyes and says, “Susan, I love you; I really do.” What does he mean? If we assume he has decency and Christian virtue, the least he could mean is something like, “Susan, you mean everything to me. I can’t live without you. Your smile paralyzes me from fifty yards; your sparkling good humor, your beautiful eyes, the scent of your hair — everything about you transfixes me...I really love you.”
Or do his words I love you mean something like, “Susan, in spite of the fact that your nose is so large it belongs in cartoons, your hair has enough grease to lubricate an eighteen-wheeler, your knees make a camel look elegant, and your personality would scare Attila the Hun, I really love you.”
I’m guessing Charles meant the first one! Yet this is how human love differs from God’s love. When Romans 5 tells us that God “loved us,” it doesn’t mean that God looked down on us and said. “You mean everything to me. I can’t live without you: your personality, your witty conversation, your beauty, your smile — everything about you.”
Not a chance! When God says, “I love you,” He is saying, “Listen — your nose and greasy hair, your disjointed knees and selfish personality, your wretched sinfulness — all make you disgustingly unattractive to Me. But I love you because I have chosen to love you, through My Son, your Savior.”
The gifts you have been given by God are yours to share. It is a time to give up and let go of the doubt and negative energies in your life and focus on sharing your spiritual gifts with others.
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Yours in Faith,
Bible Blessings® Team
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