What God Thinks

8.9.2010

Jeremiah 3:19 19 I said how I would set you among my sons, and give you a pleasant land, a heritage most beautiful of all nations. And I thought you would call me, My Father, and would not turn from following me.

The God of the Broken Heart mourns the loss of His people. What God did for them, leading them all those years, He did in hope that they would love Him, trust Him, and obey Him. And now centuries later He is faced with the heart-rending task of giving them over. All because He thought they would respond to Him in love and call Him “Father” and follow Him wholeheartedly.

I wonder sometimes what God thinks I’ll do. I wonder if God puts me in situations where He thinks I’ll respond in love and dependency only to see me respond in rebellion. And then I wonder what He thinks. In Jeremiah, God shows Himself through His prophet to be vulnerable like a loving parent hoping the best for his child but having his hand forced to let go because the child refuses to go in the direction he thinks he should have. God’s people rejected His love and wanted to be like the nations around them – be careful what you wish for.

But lest I think God weak, I must remember that He is anything but and will, in love, chasten me for my stupidity. He’s promised to do that. Many think God too loving to send anyone to hell – to that I say, try Him and see; He is too loving to keep us from hell. From God we may not get what we deserve but we may get what we want. This is a perfect picture of a loving God with a broken heart watching the people He loves go after what they want…

Father in Heaven,

You know that I am learning the hard way what to want and what to avoid. Help me to surrender this day to Your will and to remember that You will give me over to what I want, if I persist. May I persist in following hard after You – in Jesus Name, amen.