What Love Looks Like
Festivity and Transformation
Tim Gallant has a beautiful piece over at the BH blog:
One of the most beautiful promises of Scripture is Zephaniah 3.17: “Yahweh your God is in your midst; the Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness; He will quiet you with His love; He will rejoice over you with singing.”
This is the portrait of a loving Father, and it is something that we need to internalize – not only as Church leaders, but as congregational members.
If we ask the question: “How often is there something in my life that God could be correcting?” – the answer would have to be, “Always.” Even the strongest believers in this life are en route, are taking a journey in spiritual growth, and are immature in a host of areas.
The shepherds of the flock have a special calling to be aware of the needs of the sheep. And that awareness involves discerning where the flock needs correction and growth.
But while that is true, we must remember this: God does not correct everything at once. If He did, we would melt with fervent heat, and have no time to enjoy life with Him.
God is in our midst, and He delights in us; He makes quiet time for us; He even sings in celebration over us. That doesn’t mean that He ignores our sins and weaknesses, or that they do not matter. But it does mean that He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust (Psalm 103.14).
If you are a loving and wise parent, you should be able to understand this. If you look at your child, you can see many things that need work. There are sins and immaturities that you have your eye on.
And yet, even though you give verbal correction and even the occasional spanking, you do not spend every waking hour on correcting those sins and immaturities. Because you know that life does not look like that, and love does not look like that.
(King David in the Psalms, The Westminster Psalter, London, c. 1200 , British Library, Royal 2 A. xxii, f. 14v © British Library Board)
January 19th, 2012 at 8:16 am
That’s encouraging. Encouraging on a personal level, but also encouraging in that it spurs us on to be more Christlike in our dealings with sin in others!