Psalm 103:8-9 “Lord, you’re so kind and tenderhearted and so patient with people who fail you! Your love is like a flooding river overflowing its banks with kindness. You don’t look at us only to find our faults just so that you can hold a grudge against us.” Today's episode talks about the goodness of God. It talks about how much He loves us. It gives several reasons to show how we know that God is not just looking at us to find our faults so he can hold a grudge against us. He is a loving and good, good Father. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
God Is So Kind, Tenderhearted, and Patient!
Psalm 103:8-9 “Lord, you’re so kind and tenderhearted and so patient with people who fail you! Your love is like a flooding river overflowing its banks with kindness. You don’t look at us only to find our faults just so that you can hold a grudge against us.”
Today’s verses are ones I think we all need to hear over and over again. They speak such truths in them, yet they are often forgotten, or we simply don’t believe them. The first line says, “Lord, you’re so kind and tenderhearted and so patient with people who fail you!” God truly is patient with us. If you need evidence of this, look back at the Old Testament in the Bible. Look how many times God’s people turned away from Him. Look how many times he did miraculous things for them, and they repaid Him by worshiping idols. It wasn’t one or two times. It was often. Look at when He saved them from Egypt, where they were slaves, and then they complained because they didn’t have meat to eat. He gave them this miraculous substance called manna daily to eat, but they wanted more.
The Lord often told them to do something, and they did the opposite. They had so many kings who wanted to rely on other nations to protect them instead of relying on the one true God to protect them. Ever since the fall, when Adam & Eve ate the apple, man has failed the Lord. You can see even in the New Testament where we failed the Lord. The worst is when we crucified the Son of God. However, the apostles failed to trust Jesus or understand what He was saying all along the way.
God is still so kind and so patient with us. Even when you fail, and we all fail. Romans 2:23 says, “ For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Then the very next verse says, “and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” Can you see how kind, tenderhearted, and patient He is with us? Even after all the times we turned away in the Old Testament, God still sent His only Son to be crucified for our sins. This also brings us to the next part of today’s verses: "Your love is like a flooding river overflowing its banks with kindness.”
Take a moment, close your eyes, and imagine a river overflowing its banks. Imagine how much water there must be in that river. Image what it looks like for that overflowing water to cover the river's surrounding land. Can you picture water covering the grass, the rocks, the dirt, everything? This is what the Lord’s love is like. It covers us with kindness. His love covers our dirt, our sins, and all of our weaknesses. What I love about this imagery is that you can’t control the water overflowing from a river. It can’t be contained. There is just too much to stay contained it the river. It just overflows to everything around it. This is what God’s love does for us. It fills us up and then overflows to all those who surround us.
The following line says, “You don’t look at us only to find our faults just so that you can hold a grudge against us.” This is a very common belief. I have talked to many people who admit that they think of God as a judge sitting up in heaven, looking down on us, and just waiting for us to screw up so He can punish us. I have known in my heart for a long time now that this is not true, and now I have a Bible verse to confirm it. It’s interesting that this line comes right after the line about God’s love overflowing with kindness. God doesn’t have to wait up in heaven, just waiting for us to mess up. He already knows what we will do before we do it. He knows when and where you will mess up. And guess what? He loves us anyway. He forgives us anyway.
I think it is hard to picture God as a good and loving father if we don’t have a good and loving father. If our father was always waiting for us to screw up so he could punish us, then we can transfer that to God. Also, if we grew up with this image of God in our minds, it can be tough to switch our thinking. If we struggle to believe that our heavenly Father is loving and doesn’t just look at our faults, we don’t need to look any further than the cross. God sent Jesus to pay for our sins. Ellen Gould White said, “Christ was treated as we deserve that we may be treated as He deserves. He was condemned for our sins, in which He had no share, that we might be justified by His righteousness, in which we had no share. He suffered the death which was ours, that we might receive His life. 'By His stripes, we are healed.”
Does that sound like a Father who is just looking for our faults? Does it sound like someone looking for a reason to hold a grudge against us? If God wanted to hold a grudge against us, He wouldn't have to sit around waiting for us to sin; we sin daily. We turn away from God frequently. God has plenty of reasons to hold grudges, yet He doesn’t. Romans 5:8 is also reminds us of this, “ But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” God didn’t wait for us to stop sinning to save us. Luckily, because I don’t think that is possible on this side of heaven. He saved us, knowing we would keep sinning. Jesus chose to die on that cross, not just for the sins of that day, but all the sins before that day, on that day, and all future sins.
When we hear all of that, it is hard to view our Lord as someone just sitting up in heaven waiting for us to sin so that he can punish us. Viewing Him like this doesn't make sense when we think about all He has sacrificed to save us. Father Mike always says truth can’t contradict truth. The words in the Bible are truth. They are the Words of God. The Bible is telling us plain and simple that God is not someone who looks at us only to find our faults, just so that you can hold a grudge against us. The facts in the Bible show us just how loving God really is. If you struggle to see what a loving Father in heaven we have, I urge you to read about Him in the Bible. Read the Psalms, the New Testament, and the Song of Songs. Read pretty much any part of the Bible, and you will be able to see how great God has loved us over the years. Looking back at our lives through the lens of “What had God done for us over the years?” we will see all the amazing things He has done for us. He really is a good, good Father.
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Thank you for loving us so well. Thank you for showing us what true love looks like. Lord, we ask that you show us what a good Dad you are. For all of us struggling to get an accurate image or feeling of you, we ask that you help us, Lord. Please show us what to read and where to learn more. Lord, show us who you really are. Give us a renewal of our mind. Teach us to see the real you! We love you, Lord, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day!