God's Abounding Love

I am a little perplexed today as I begin to write. I am writing on God’s amazing love but as I read I find it interesting to see the faith that others displayed in the Old Testament, especially Joseph. Maybe I will write about him some other day.
God, abounding in love, yes, we can see that throughout scripture. Take for example the very thought of creation. Why do you think He created this world and all that is in it, including you? I believe He wanted a relationship with someone other than Himself. He wanted to share with others, which is a result of love. There are times in the Bible that He doubted that He had done the right thing by creating this world. He was so angry that He wanted to wipe it off the face of this earth but He has always found someone who was faithful and wanted that relationship with Him as much as He did. People who have prayed and ask Him to spare the people.

One example of this can be found in Genesis 19 where Abraham pleads with the Lord to spare Sodom and Gomorrah. This is another story where I see God’s patience with Abraham as he questions God. Another vision of a 2 year old talking! I have to think of myself talking to God, What if?, What if?. What if? . . . . The point being that God was patient and He responded to Abraham in a remarkable way, He answered his questions! Abraham wanted to know if there were only 10 righteous in Sodom and Gomorrah would God save the cities. What was God’s answer? It was yes. If only 10 righteous would be found, God would save it. Why do you think that is so? My thoughts are, if there were 10 righteous in the city there were 10 who could witness and possibly bring others to the Lord but they did not find 10, they found Lot, his wife, and two daughters. As they fled, Lot’s wife turned back and became a pillar of salt. As Abraham looked over the land the next day, “he saw dense smoke rising from the land, like smoke from a furnace” (Genesis 19:28b).

You ask what that has to do with God’s abounding love? Look at Genesis 18:20 “Then the Lord said, ‘The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me.” God loved and cared so much about the outcry that He heard and investigated it. The outcry was so great that He had to destroy the disease that infected the cities, the disease of evil men. Look further in Genesis 19:29 “So when God destroyed the cities of the plain, he remembered Abraham, and he brought Lot out of the catastrophe that overthrew the cities where Lot had lived.”

First of all, God heard the outcry. He heard the cries of those whose lives were being destroyed, secondly He responded. He is not a God that is going to love us just because we are His creation. Have you ever been around children who have not been disciplined by their parents? It is not fun, the children run like wild animals and their actions towards others is horrible! Some parents think they can love their children into obedience but that only works with grandparents. Oh, no, I believe that really doesn’t work at all. You see there needs to be a love in return and in the case of Sodom and Gomorrah there was not a love in return so God was forced to destroy it. We see the same thing in a larger scale in Genesis 6 where God destroyed all the land after He saw the evilness of man. God did not create us to become evil but to have a relationship with Him. When He hears our outcry and He sees the destruction that man has caused He has to react in a way that will get rid of the infection much like a doctor will do when he cares for you. You can’t fight infection by ignoring it, you have to get to the source and take care of it and that is what God did with Sodom and Gomorrah, two cities that were evil. That is how much He loves you.

I have to think back to the time that I had to take by beautiful babies to the health department to get vaccinations. I hated holding them down for those shots. There was no way that I could explain to them why it had to take place but they had to trust me that it was for their own good. ‘Do you think that is how God feels sometimes when He hears our cries? Do things happen in this life that we don’t understand? Yes, but we can be assured that God hears the cries, that He is in control, and that He loves us. He doesn’t love the evilness of this world and rest assured He sees it.

Life check:
Are you loving God in the manner that you should? John 14:15, 21, 23-24
Do you trust Him for who He is, not for what He can do? John 14:6
Do you love others? John 15:17
Have you forgiven others? Matthew 6:14-15

As you seek Him and find Him may your hearts be filled with the love that comes from our Father in Heaven, may you in return have peace, joy, and happiness.
Seeking Him with all my heart,
Sheila