Measuring God

We do this.  We measure God by ourselves.  Maybe not consciously or purposefully, but we do it all the same.  

Yesterday I was out running, trying to get in a little exercise and fresh air.  As is my habit I was listening to a Joyce Meyer podcast.  The topic was "Authentically You."  Joyce spoke of being who God meant us to be, not living to please people, but Him.  But what stood out to me was when she spoke of God's love for us.  This is a tough subject for me mainly because I know all the junk inside and I see how wretched I can behave.  

I'm sure many of us feel that God can't possibly love us the way we are.  Or maybe we concede that He loves us, but probably doesn't like us very much.  I've lived in this place for a long, long time.  I think I've moved from the first category to the second though.  

I don't like me very much.  I know my thoughts and feelings.  I see the way I act.  I see my impatience, my grouchiness, my critical attitude, on and on and on.  Many of us see ourselves in a negative light.  And then we take that way of seeing ourselves and apply it to how God sees us.  We measure His thoughts by our thoughts.  But the Bible tell us in Isaiah 55:8-9 "My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.  For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts." 

So why are we equating the way God loves us to the way we love ourselves?  Did not God also say, "Long ago the Lord said to Israel: “I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love. With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself."  Jeremiah 31:3.  

And yes, we can all say, "You don't know what I've done, how much anger, hatred, bitterness....I have in my heart."  Well maybe I don't.  But I know what's in mine.  And God knows all of us inside out, He knew us before we were born, knows the end from the beginning and yet still calls us His own.  Psalm 139:15-16 You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.  16 You saw me before I was born.  Every day of my life was recorded in your book.Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.  

God knows us, and loves us with an eternal, everlasting, complete, perfect love.  We need not fear Him turning from us.  Romans 8:29 For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.  Ephesians 1:4 Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.

Before time began, God chose us.  Before we took a breath.  So yes, He knows all about us, knew all about us, and yet still chose to save us, to adopt us and yes to love us.  He does not love us based on our performance.  He loves us because He is love.  He doesn't change who or what He is based on our ideas or actions.  God hates sin, yes indeed.  But that doesn't negate His love for you and me.  

As humans, we tend to love those who love us.  We are happy when we perform well, reject ourselves when we don't.  We have a tendency to follow emotions and judge things (ourselves and others) based on how well we do.  If we have a good day, say all the right things, we are pleased and love ourselves.  But when we fail....then we pile on the recriminations and guilt.  Our Father doesn't do this.  In Him there is no turning or changing who He is.  James 1:17 Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow.   We must trust His love.  He who began a good work in us will complete it! (Philippians 1:6)  Let's not measure how God loves by how we love.  

Lord, thank You for the everlasting love You love us with.  Thank You that You don't walk away when we've gone too far, failed too often.  Thank You that You don't see us the way we see ourselves.  Teach us to have a balanced way of looking at ourselves.  Let us come to You when we fail, for forgiveness, for strength and for correction.  But let us not try to hide, because You love us fully, even when we fail.  Thank You that You will always love me, even at my most unloveable.  But we also ask that You continue to work in us to make us more like Jesus.  And it's in His precious Name I pray.  Amen.  

Read Psalm 139.  Meditate on it's truths.  

Psalm 139

1 O Lord, you have examined my heart

    and know everything about me.

2 You know when I sit down or stand up.

    You know my thoughts even when I’m far away.

3 You see me when I travel

    and when I rest at home.

    You know everything I do.

4 You know what I am going to say

    even before I say it, Lord.

5 You go before me and follow me.

    You place your hand of blessing on my head.

6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,

    too great for me to understand!

7 I can never escape from your Spirit!

    I can never get away from your presence!

8 If I go up to heaven, you are there;

    if I go down to the grave,[a] you are there.

9 If I ride the wings of the morning,

    if I dwell by the farthest oceans,

10 even there your hand will guide me,

    and your strength will support me.

11 I could ask the darkness to hide me

    and the light around me to become night—

12     but even in darkness I cannot hide from you.

To you the night shines as bright as day.

    Darkness and light are the same to you.

13 You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body

    and knit me together in my mother’s womb.

14 Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!

    Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.

15 You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion,

    as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.

16 You saw me before I was born.

    Every day of my life was recorded in your book.

Every moment was laid out

    before a single day had passed.

17 How precious are your thoughts about me,[b] O God.

    They cannot be numbered!

18 I can’t even count them;

    they outnumber the grains of sand!

And when I wake up,

    you are still with me!

19 O God, if only you would destroy the wicked!

    Get out of my life, you murderers!

20 They blaspheme you;

    your enemies misuse your name.

21 O Lord, shouldn’t I hate those who hate you?

    Shouldn’t I despise those who oppose you?

22 Yes, I hate them with total hatred,

    for your enemies are my enemies.

23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;

    test me and know my anxious thoughts.

24 Point out anything in me that offends you,

    and lead me along the path of everlasting life.