Today I was reading a blog post on Growing with God called "Reverse Justice" . It ended with the following "You can feel safe asking God to help you heal your spiritual wounds while he covers your heart. Allow your heart to trust in him".
It's beautiful, and it speaks to me about God being with you always in all ways, meaning He never forsakes you. So it's funny to me (and not in the ha-ha sense) how so many Christians presume to speak for God when confronting a fellow Christian they believe are rebelling or whom they believe are willfully sinning, presuming to speak for God, saying God will not stay patient for always. Decoded: "You better stop what you're doing or God's gonna get mad and you will be in trou-ble!" And they do it with so much "holy" glee. They almost seem to be glad God is going to punish the person if they keep doing what they're doing, because in their eyes it means there's some justice in the world. If they have to follow the rules, then by golly so do you!
Only problem is, if you're going to say God is love and we know that "love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.." then I think it's safe to assume God has a wee bit more patience with us human beings than we do with each other. It also means He sees into our hearts, and knows why we do what we do. Knowing the motivation behind a person's so called bad behaviour leads to compassion. God is compassionate.
So today I come to the conclusion that God is actively wooing those whom we may see as willfully sinning, trying to heal their wounded heart. He is not getting ready to whip them into shape if they dare to continue for one more second to "defy" Him.
We are all saved by grace. Maybe we should extend some to our neighbour.
*Passage quoted on love is from the well known scripture 1 Corinthians 13:4-7
2 comments:
I witnessed this first hand at 8-years-old when the pastor in the orthodox Pentecost church that my family was (and still is) devoted to asked a homeless woman to leave church one night because she was wearing pants. That night, I began finding my own path.
Beautiful post, thank you.
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