Do you believe that God is Love?
I remember growing up seeing little cartoons everywhere
“Love is …”
Love is never having to say you’re sorry.
Love is a hug.
Love is a teddy bear.
Basically, love is anything that makes you feel good! I like love!
When I was a teenager, the girls were warned about the phrase “If you loved me you would …”
It’s probably wiser to ask God about love, than to ask your local teenager.
Paul says in 1 Corinthians:
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.
1 Corinthians 13:4-8
Now let’s try that verse again. Since God is Love, we could say:
God is patient and kind.
God does not envy or boast.
God is not arrogant or rude.
God does not insist on His own way.
God is not irritable or resentful.
God does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth.
God bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. God never ends.
Wow! Is this the God you know? Is this your mental picture of God?
Which one of these statements clash with your picture of God?
The one that clashed for me was “God does not insist on His own way.” That just seems wrong. But in fact, if I slow down a bit, I see that it is quite profound.
When we look around and see the pain and sorrow, the flat-out evil in the world, we wish He would insist on having His own way, and clean up this mess.
But having His own way, would prevent us from being able to choose our own way. It would eliminate our free life. And that would prevent us from learning to love. So ultimately, when God allows us to wander, He is drawing us back to Him.
He is hoping, enduring, bearing all things.
Today’s meditation. Consider which of the statements above collide with your view of God. Play with it. Pray with it. Ask God to align your understanding of God with what it means to say “God is love”.
