The above statement is one that took me almost four decades to take from head knowledge to heart knowledge. I lived too many years feeling as though God was angry with me, ready to judge me if I remotely stepped out of line, standing above me with His thunderbolt in hand, ready to punish me if I stepped out of line.
Oh, what I wouldn’t give to sit down with my younger self and have a heart-to-heart over a cup of coffee. That is not an accurate description of the God I serve.
The God I serve loves His children – all of us. Those who are lost and don’t want anything to do with Him, those who have drifted away from a close relationship with Him, and those who wake up every day choosing to serve Him with our whole hearts.
As I’m known for saying, God is a gentleman and while He will woo us and put situations in our lives to help us turn toward Him, He isn’t going to force Himself on us. He waits for us to receive the gift He offers, freely and lovingly. He loves us so much He will let us choose eternal separation from Him if that is what we want.
He also loves us enough that if we choose to step outside of His boundaries (found in the Bible), we step outside His umbrella of blessing, but He is ready to welcome us back the minute we repent and choose to do life within His guidelines.
God loves to bless His children. He loves to give us good gifts. He wants a close relationship with us, just as those of us who are parents want a close relationship with our children.
When bad things happen in life, and they will, because we live in a world where evil (and sin) is present, that pain is not something God wants for us. He wants us to come to Him, give Him the worry/anxiety/pain/hurt and let Him exchange it for His peace, joy, and love.
He wants us to fully trust Him to take care of everything we will face … and rest in the knowledge He has whatever we are facing. And when we do that, when we stay out of the way and let God work as only He can, that’s when miracles happen … blessings happen … and breakthroughs occur.
God truly does want the best for His children. So much that He gives us guidelines in His Word of how to stay under His protection so that those blessings (good things) have room to flow.
© Cheri Swalwell 2020