GOD'S LOVE AND POWER!

OUTLINE

1. ACCEPTING THAT GOD'S LOVE AND POWER IS SUPERIOR TO OURS

        a.    GOD'S POWER

        b.    OUR WEAKNESS

        c.    TRUSTING GOD

2. TRUSTING: GOD OR OURSELVES?

3. POINTING US TO JESUS

4. DO NOT EXPECT TO SEE CLEARLY

5. DIGGING DEEPER YET INTO GOD'S LOVE

6. DO WE REALLY "BELIEVE?"

7. GOD HAS EVERYTHING UNDER CONTROL

The subject of resting on God's love and power may be the simplest and the most rewarding Foundation to put into practice.  It is a simple concept. We are flawed.

   We are limited in every way imaginable,

our bodies and our minds flawed. We are lulled and deceived into thinking we are near invincible particularly in our early years. Giving up on our view of our bodies and particularly our minds is frightening to most of us. We depend on both to get us through life or we are forced to depend on others. Depending on others results in us giving up our sense of independence.

Meditate on the following verse, noting the word "all."  He holds back the oceans, holds up the mountains and holds every cell in our bodies together.  This is the power of our God.

   "He is before all things, and in him all things hold together."

Col 1:17 

How can we ever wonder whether God's power is both beyond our imagination and more than sufficient to be capable of "solving" whatever problems we face?

This is why when we struggle, when we feel weak or better yet realize our own weakness, and feel frightened, God has already answered. Paul with all his strengths was given a weakness to remind him of his frailty. God's answer to Paul in the following passage applies to us as well.

It is when we realize how weak we really are, that God's power is made evident. When we think and live like we have got everything handled, that lie, and our pride resists God's power working in our lives. It is not that He can not do the work. (Job 42:2) It is that God will not get the Glory so He does not do the work. When it appears that we are responsible for a positive outcome either in our own eyes or those observing, we get the glory.

   It is not God's purpose in the world for us to be glorified

and it is not the purpose He created us for either. An example in the Bible that explains this well is Gideon who started with 32,000 men to defeat the Midianites. 

It is simple. God wants glory and we are here to glorify Him. 

We simply are weak. The issue of our weakness becomes a stumbling block in two different ways.

• First, we think we are not weak, and that we can handle life just fine on our own, with a little help from God from time to time when we think we need Him.

• Second, we think that we are so weak, that things are so bad, that the God of the universe is not powerful enough to fix things.

Believing and thinking about the meaning of Isaiah 55:9 settles the issue of man's power and God's power. Now, spend at least a couple of minutes soaking in this truth. 

   When we think we are capable, we are being prideful. When we think we are too weak, we are being prideful.

How can this be?  The capable are not considering that they are unable to even take their next breath, their next step without God holding their bodies together. Let's look again at this verse.  

Give at least a moment to think about the meaning of the word "all."  What does it not include?  Nothing. Without Christ's active power, the universe vaporizes into nothing! How can we possibly take credit for our minuscule accomplishments?

When we think we are too weak, we may be comparing ourselves to a time when we did not think we were weak. We may have thought at one time we were capable based on some physical or mental attribute or some material things we possessed. The pride is evident in that case because we falsely believe that if we had those things back, we would no longer be weak. Pride also comes in the midst of our perceived weakness being too much for God because we think somehow, that we are a strong enough being in this universe that the one who created it and the one who sustains it, Jesus, does not have enough goodness, love and power to be bigger than our huge, in our own eyes, weakness.

Are we willing to accept our humble position and to trust in His strength? When we trust in God's love and power we receive a wonderful gift. Peace.

   What is it that we are trusting in? In God's love and power.

We are trusting that 

• God is loving enough to manage that situation so it turns out for our good. 

• God is powerful enough to be in control of the situation we face.

   We do not have perfect peacebecause we are not trusting in a perfect God. 

Our peace increases as our view of God's love and God's power increases. 

Let us simplify it with the big picture. We have shown ourselves to be untrustworthy, incapable and unloving at times. Clearly

   based on our history, we are not dependable. God has always shown Himself to be trustworthy,

capable and loving. Even though "we see but a poor reflection" now, (I Cor 13:12) and our flawed view of God may be very small, when we are struggling, when we are sinking, He, in our flawed minds, is similar to a small life raft in the middle of the ocean. Two false views keep us from getting in the raft.

• We think we are capable. To get in requires humility, admitting we can not make it on our own. Our view of our abilities is flawed.

• We do not see the raft as capable of saving us. Our view of God's love and ability are flawed.

When we get in, and hold on, our eyes will be opened to find that the raft we are on will soon be picked up by a Coast Guard vessel that has been looking for us. 

God does not present Himself to us in all His majesty, revealing all of His love and power. If He did, in our human form, we would die. But even if there was a way, all that God is so outshines the majesty of the world that people would choose God out of self-preservation and selfishness.  That is not God's desire for mankind.

He had a plan put into place before the beginning of time. That plan was for Jesus to be glorified through His sacrifice for mankind.

That plan is purposefully to point humanity to Jesus. Jesus showed us what love is.

It is important to stop and consider as much as we can,  the depth of the love of God. In our seeking to understand God, it is important to start with the fact that

   "we see but a poor reflection."

Otherwise, we can come to the false conclusion that if we can not understand something about God, it must not be true. Few, if any, readers understand all the complexities of a jet airplane but that does not stop them from flying. What has God done to show His immense love?

Paul's prayer for us is that we would see God more clearly, by faith, not because His majesty is shown to us in a way that takes away the necessity of faith. 

Even if the raft may look small in our eyes, it is our only hope. But God does not want us to see Him as our only hope just because we at last see how flawed we are. He wants us to see Him as a God who loves us beyond our imagination, and that we would grasp how high and deep His love is.

Before time began, God, knowing we would sin, planned for our creation and redemption.  Who makes something they know will not do what it was made for? God. Consider that God knew ahead of time every sin you have ever committed and those you will commit and He made you anyway! That is love! Before God made man, He knew that the result would be immense suffering on His part. He "looked ahead" and chose to do so anyway. We can not conceive of being all powerful and having such love to be willing to go through such suffering for such flawed creatures. It is important to spend some time here to reflect on, as much as we are able, the immensity of God's love.

He died for us.  Before Jesus died for us, he endured suffering for our sake beyond our imagination. 

• He gave up the power of God in His human life.

   

  "Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross!" Phil 2:6-8

  We do not like humbling ourselves before others, much less thinking of becoming, for example, a bug. 

• Jesus gave up being all-knowing, all-powerful and present everywhere both in space and in time. Jesus created time and did not live in it until He was born.

• Jesus took on all of our human frailties

   

  "For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people." Heb 2:17

• Suffered when tempted.

   

  "Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted." Heb 2:18

   

• Jesus took the role of a servant.

   

  "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." Mark 10:45

   

• Jesus was insulted, misunderstood and ridiculed. 

• Jesus chose to go to the cross.  He did so out of obedience. 

   

  "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done." Luke 22:42

   

   He did so out of a desire for reconciliation with us.

   

  "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame," Heb 12:2a

   

• Jesus was tortured and died a horrible physical death on the cross. (Ps 22:1-18, I Pet 2: 24)

• Jesus had His Father turn His back on Him. "And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice,

   

  "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?"--which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Mark 15:34

   

   The fullness of what happened in this moment is beyond human comprehension. We can only get a glimpse perhaps, by visualizing several people who are closest to us in our lives betraying us and leaving us alone deep in the wilderness where we are sure to die of starvation. The Father and the Son are, were, and will be together for Eternity. They are Eternal. But, in this moment of created time, both experienced a splitting, a chasm, a separation that if it could have been felt by the universe, would have torn it apart.

   

     The final scream of Jesus was a final act of love for us on this earth.

Jesus took our place. We deserve punishment, the death penalty, eternal suffering. We deserve to be separated from God. We can not imagine the agony Jesus went through when He took ALL the sins of the world on himself. 

What more could God do to show he loves you?

He calls us sons.  Jesus, so to speak, took our place in prison. We were not left out on the street to start over, fend for ourselves, or find meaning. We were adopted into the family of God. Most of us, never having been an orphan, can feel the excitement of a family not only taking us into their home but adopting us, giving us their name, caring for us as one of their own and including us in their will. We do not feel loved being part of God's family at times because Satan blinds us to the truth, the immensity of love it takes to adopt.

God glorifies Himself in us. Every one of us is a unique creation of God. When we do the will of God, loving others, we have a unique light that shines. When it does, God is glorified. (Matt 5:16) Consider that God's glory is shining through broken you! He has chosen you to be the vessel of His love. Wow! What love it takes to use broken vessels to show glory through, when God could choose to do it without us. 

He's preparing a place for us beyond our imagination.  Can you even imagine?  No! If someone told you that in a year you would receive not only what you have wished you could have, but it would be 100 times better, you would be so excited and feel so cared for. Not a house, but a huge mansion with servants.  Not a vacation but months in the best resorts in the world. We would look forward to it every day. We would wake up thinking about it, counting down the days. Well, what is wrong that we do not have even more excitement about a gift that never ends? We are not doing what it says to do in Col 3:1-3. What more can God do to show how much He loves you?

    "What more do I expect God to do so I feel loved?"  Can you think of what earthly thing you would trade for any one of the five ways God shows love to us?

Because this  is so important, so foundational, it is best that we look at peace and trust again in a practical way.

We do not have perfect peace because we are not trusting in a perfect God.  Our peace increases as our view of God's love and God's power increases.  When we do not have perfect peace, it is important to identify the problem. We can compare our inner peace to a thermometer telling us whether we have a fever or not. Peace is much more than a gauge, but it can be used as one. The problem is simple.

   We either do not believe that God is powerful enough to take care of us or we do not believe that He loves us enough to do so.

It could even be both. The word "believe" in the Bible has an additional meaning we do not usually think of when we use the word in English. Trust. If a friend just finished aeronautical school and asked if we believed they could fly, our response would quickly be, "yes." If they asked if we would go with them on their first flight without an instructor and we hesitated, we did not believe they could fly using the Greek definition of "believe."

To help see how this idea of trust is part of "believe," read through these verses three times replacing the word "believe" with "trust," then "have confidence in" and finally, "place your trust in." This helps us see how these definitions fit much of the intended meaning, not just as we would mean many times in English, "believing in."

We need to get this settled in our mind regarding whether or not we trust God's power and love. Trusting God's power is not a hard thing to do. We need to spend a short period of time thinking about His power. He made the entire universe, including time itself, by His word. What more evidence could anyone ask for? When it comes to His love, many have a problem trusting for several reasons.

• They do not know the meaning of Agape love. It is doing what is best for the other no matter how one feels.

• They know their own love is flawed.

• They know others who have let them down because they have flawed love.

• They have not spent time meditating on how much God loves them in so many ways.

• They minimize the most important way, the death of Jesus on the cross.

We can solve these roadblocks by understanding that God's love is perfect and our love is flawed so we will do best never to compare the two in order to understand His love. When we, like Peter, take our eyes off of Jesus and falter, we need to come back to the five ways God shows His love to us and ask the question. 

   "What more do I expect God to do in order for me to trust that He loves me enough to take care of me?"

We so much of the time in spite of all the evidence we have against ourselves, trust ourselves. 

Breaking down this popular verse is simple.  Focus on the bolded words and it is clear to see that it is all of our hearts, that leaning on something not solid results in failure, and again that it is in all of our ways that we need to acknowledge God. 

He wants us to know that He not only loves us beyond our imaginations He is capable of handling anything that comes our way.

   God not only wants us to see our limits, but much more importantly His limitless love and power.

Perhaps, if God were to sum up in three words His response to even the most difficult situation we can ever face, He would say to us.

"I'VE GOT THIS!"