Just the other day, I heard another message about God’s love. Yes, another one. The speaker shared interesting points on how we should focus more on God’s love for us than on our love for Him. That if we know and understand God’s love, everything would be ok and we would be set for life. That because God loves us so much, He wants to keep giving to us and blessing us. Then, a few days later, a few friends attended a conference to hear more about God’s love. I am told that they were so encouraged to know that their heavenly Father loves them.
These are just two recent incidents. But it made me think, “What’s with this emphasis on God’s love in recent days?” Don’t we know that God loves us? Don’t we already know Him as Abba Father when we became children of God? Apparently not, sadly.
It suddenly dawned upon me – this generation is a very broken generation! Perhaps even more broken than the ones before. With all the advancements in the world, we have lost what is truly important. Through social media, we are all supposed to be more connected than ever before, but there is still a gaping emptiness in many hearts. There is an increased driven-ness and motivation to be the best, resulting in parents and children striving for excellence, resulting in less time spent knowing each other. Sex and physical expressions have become synonymous with relationships of love, producing even more disappointment and broken-ness.
No wonder, messages about the love of God are so sought after these days. After all, there is no love like the love of God, for God is love and in Him is perfect love! People in this generation clamour to be loved. And what better way to understand that than to expose oneself to God’s love, over and over again. Indeed, I am so blessed to be a child of God, to be a recipient of the Father’s Love!
Sadly, not every Christian fully understands this, and there is still so much broken-ness, even in the Church. What is more disconcerting is that there seems to be an over-emphasis on this one aspect of God … His love … at the exclusion of all the other attributes of God. Please don’t get me wrong, as if I am saying we can ever get enough of God’s eternal and limitless love. That is not my point at all!
Bask in His love all you want. Receive all the healing and grace that you need. Frolic in His glory and in His presence for as long as you desire. But let us not forget what God, our King and Master, has commissioned us for as ambassadors of Christ and His Kingdom. According to Paul the apostle, that’s the result of knowing and encountering God’s love … it compels us to live for Him and to impact others who need to know His love!
However, that people need to keep looking for His love only confirms how broken this generation is, how fragmented hearts are. The focus continues to be self. The love of God becomes a pill to pop just to get by another day of living in a broken world, to feel good about oneself.
I fully agree that there is nothing we can do to warrant God’s love, for His loved us all while we were yet sinners. But my personal conviction is that there comes a point when we must move on and grow up, and not abuse the love of God to be an excuse not to be obedient and faithful to the One who loved us and gave His Son for us.
As a father to seven children, I will never withhold my love from each of them. They may not understand it fully, but I love them all dearly and desire the best for them. I am thrilled each time they choose to hug me, sit on my lap, or kiss me to express their love for me, and to receive my love for them. But if they display an unusual sense of unhealthy neediness, I’d be very, very concerned. Yet, love them I would for such is the father’s love. But after that, I would be looking for signs of growth and maturity, not to mention obedience and faithfulness. Does that mean I love them less? Not at all. It is because I love them that I wish to see them grow into the persons that God has called them to be!
That is more the point I am trying to get across in this short reflection. This generation is typified by broken-ness and that’s why we crave for messages of love. The truth is that wholeness has already been secured for us all by Jesus. By faith, we can immediately walk in that truth. That said, be willing to walk in accountability with others so that we can live and grow in that truth!
One Day At A Time 