April 20, 2001
In all their distress he too was distressed,
and the angel of his presence saved them.
In his love and mercy he redeemed them;
he lifted them up and carried them
all the days of old.
Isaiah 63:9
This passage about God's love clearly lays to rest some of my faulty thinking about God's love... I understand God's love and believe that God hurts over the hurts in my life.. but, it becomes harder to hold onto that thought when I am feeling the consequences of my own sin. At those moments my mind tends to think along the lines that I deserve what I get, God can't possibly have patience with me again, I imagine him looking down on me saying "when are you ever going to get it?"?? But that isn't the heart of God. The Israelites were in captivity because of their own sin... nonetheless God's heart was that he was distressed because they were and he worked salvation for them. God cares deeply about us, when we hurt he hurts even if its the consequences of our sin that we are feeling - that DOESN'T CHANGE HIS LOVE or THE WAY HE LOOKS AT US! He will still work in our lives to redeem us from whatever we are held captive by.