God’s Patient, Kind Love

Day 2

God’s Patient, Kind Love

God has used many circumstances over the last few years to draw my heart to His compassionate love.  He is showing me the love He has for me, and the love He wants to grow in me.  Experientially, I’ve been learning this through an outpouring of patience and the kindness when we were in need,  in letters from ancestors revealing their obvious love for the next generation (that’s me),in my struggles to be compassionate with others in my life,  and through the tragic results that occur when people are not loved or fail to give love.  As I have been experiencing these things God has, again and again, drawn my eyes to verses about His love and compassion for us, His frail, fallen Creation. 

For example, as I was reading Exodus recently I saw this quality of God vividly demonstrated in His dealings with the Israelites.  After they had sinned against the Lord very seriously (Ex. 32:1-6), so badly that the Lord talked of destroying the whole nation (Ex. 32:9-10), God spared them and then revealed His glory to Moses,  describing Himself as  “The LORD, The LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.”  (Ex. 34:7a).  God repeatedly spared His people because of His great compassion and graciousness.  He has always been a God of amazing grace! 

The times when it is hard to love are when true love is grown in us.  It is easy to “love God” when circumstances are favorable.  It is easy to “love humans” when they hide their sins and their neediness and perform with excellence.  God calls each of us to a different kind of love, a love that is based on trust in Him and His desire for us to love others with the love that He has for us.  This is a love that loves when life conspires against our ability to trust; when questions about what God is doing abound; when a harsh response to mistakes and sins seems necessary. This is the love that Jesus Himself manifested.  This is the love the Apostle Paul wrote about, “Love is patient; love is kind” (1 Corinthians 13:4).   I guess what I am talking about is loving in the face of suffering and/or offense.  That is actually the literal meaning of the word patient in 1 Corinthians 13:4: it literally means “love suffers long.”  It means loving with patience and kindness when events or people have not been kind to us, when we feel hurt or betrayed.   When our security and inner peace lies not in dependence upon other people or in our circumstances, but in God’s compassionate love for us, we are able to trust God and allow Him to love others through us.  God’s love and grace has transformative power.

During  a time of pain God used  a Peter Furler song to speak directly to where my heart was,  and still often still is, in terms of “feeling” His love for me. 

You hold the weight of the world still I don’t slip through your hands.

Your love is bigger than just a notion built by man.

I fall again and again, but You whisper “You’re still mine.” 

You feel the pain of the world but you never push mine aside.

You reach for me with a love quiets all my fears

You reach for me like a Father wipes away the tears

So many people in this world, but I hear you calling out my name.

You reach for me, now I’m never gonna be the same. 

(From “Reach” by Seth Mosley, Juan Otero and Andrew Fromm”)