My father is a giver. That is the way he expresses his feelings toward those he loves. Whether it is buying you breakfast, a new shirt, filling your gas tank up before your long trip, or simply making sure that you have money in your all too empty wallet, he is a giver. For those who follow Gary Chapman, this is his "love language". Most of us either know someone like this or we have this trait in ourselves. So it is no small wonder that we would expect this out of heavenly father.
What we might not be ready for and what God may be ready to reveal to us is a love that we have not known - a love that takes away.
At first glance it almost seems backwards and down right cruel. Why would a God who loves us take away from us the things that we love? How is this an expression of love? Is it not cruel? Is it not hate? Indeed it is not!
God knows what we need most. God knows what will bring us more contentment and more satisfaction that anything and knowing this - if He really loves us - He will make sure we have. Above all things God knows that we must have Him as our absolute desire. We cannot love ourselves more than Him. We cannot love our jobs more than Him. We cannot love our spouse, our children, our money, our cars, our security, or any other thing more than we love Him.
To insure this God will take away the things that hold first place in our heart until He alone stands in that place.
To be sure, God is not against us, nor is He against us loving our spouses, children, jobs, or any other thing. But to love anything more than we love God is simple idolatry.
This we must do, when we suffer loss we must ask, "Is God removing this from my life because it held to high a place in my heart?" It may be, it may not. If it is we can know that our loss is really not loss at all, because God is seeing personally to the matter of our hearts affection and making sure that He and He alone remains as the greatest love of our hearts.
What we might not be ready for and what God may be ready to reveal to us is a love that we have not known - a love that takes away.
At first glance it almost seems backwards and down right cruel. Why would a God who loves us take away from us the things that we love? How is this an expression of love? Is it not cruel? Is it not hate? Indeed it is not!
God knows what we need most. God knows what will bring us more contentment and more satisfaction that anything and knowing this - if He really loves us - He will make sure we have. Above all things God knows that we must have Him as our absolute desire. We cannot love ourselves more than Him. We cannot love our jobs more than Him. We cannot love our spouse, our children, our money, our cars, our security, or any other thing more than we love Him.
To insure this God will take away the things that hold first place in our heart until He alone stands in that place.
To be sure, God is not against us, nor is He against us loving our spouses, children, jobs, or any other thing. But to love anything more than we love God is simple idolatry.
This we must do, when we suffer loss we must ask, "Is God removing this from my life because it held to high a place in my heart?" It may be, it may not. If it is we can know that our loss is really not loss at all, because God is seeing personally to the matter of our hearts affection and making sure that He and He alone remains as the greatest love of our hearts.
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