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August 5, 2019July 25, 2019

God’s Unconditional, Conditional Love

God’s unconditional love requires everything from you.

Is God’s love unconditional? Yes.

Is God’s love conditional? Yes.

God’s unconditional love

We define unconditional love as not requiring a person being loved to fulfill any conditions. Unconditional love gives love regardless of whether the beloved deserves love or wants love. Unconditional love does not say, “I will love you if….”

Jesus said, your father who is in heaven “makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45 ESV). That is unconditional love.

God resembles a human father who loves his child long before the child is able to respond to that love. The father gives the child a home, pays for her food, diapers, doctor visits, clothing. His daughter returns this kindness with poopy diapers, crying in the middle of the night, and regular demands to be held and walked. Still, the father keeps giving and giving. This is unconditional love.

Scripture says, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8 ESV).

God loves people unconditionally. He loves because he loves. He loves even his enemies. He loves sinners.

Scripture says, “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19 ESV).

God planned to send his Son to suffer and die for our sins before we were even born. He brought the gospel message to our ears when we did not want to hear the message and convicted us of our sin and godlessness when we did not want to be reminded of it. He poured out his wrath on his holy, beloved, precious Son so he would not have to pour wrath on us. He did this while people were still sinners. This is unconditional love.

God’s conditional love

On the other hand, conditional love says, “My love requires something from you.” Again and again the Bible shows that when God gives love he demands something.

Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’” (Matthew 7:21–23 ESV)

What could be more conditional than that? In effect, Jesus says, I have loved you, but if you insist on disobeying my Father and living lawlessly, depart from me. I never knew you.

That is conditional love.

God delivered the Israelites from Egypt unconditionally. He called Moses and sent him against Pharaoh with ten plagues even though the Israelites soon told Moses to leave them alone. God parted the Red Sea and set the people free. Then at Mount Sinai he gave the people his commands and taught them how to live in covenant with him. Nevertheless, again and again they refused to believe and obey God, until finally God sent them to wander for 40 years in the desert until the last of the rebellious men had died.

That is conditional love. God didn’t say he would love each of them no matter what. He said they had to keep his covenant.

One of the best-known verses in the Bible says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God” (John 3:16–18, ESV).

In other words, God loved the world unconditionally by sending Jesus, but the condition for escaping condemnation is believing in Jesus. If a person rejects Jesus, then God’s unconditional love does them no good at all. Meet the condition, or perish.

Elsewhere, the New Testament says, “Do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed” (Romans 2:4–5 ESV). That is conditional love. Respond to my love or suffer my wrath.

The problem with talking about God’s unconditional love

God’s unconditional love in Jesus is our song and message. Unfortunately, in our culture today, when we talk about God’s unconditional love, many people misunderstand that to mean God requires nothing from them. Many think “God loves you” means they don’t need to believe in Jesus, don’t need to repent of their sins, don’t need to pursue holiness, don’t need to worship or give thanks to God, don’t need to pay attention to the Bible, don’t need to have anything to do with the church. They think they can live however they want, or at least be a generally good person, and believe whatever they want regardless of what the Bible says, and God loves them enough to surely welcome them into heaven. Tragically, they are wrong, and ultimately dead wrong.

Our way and God’s way

Our way: Fallen sinners can misunderstand God’s love to require nothing from them.

God’s way: God’s unconditional love requires everything from us. “He died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised” (2 Corinthians 5:15 ESV). “If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love” (John 15:10 NIV).

Life principle: Don’t choose between describing God’s love as either conditional or unconditional, for his love is both.

Jeremiah 9:23–24: “Thus says the LORD: ‘Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.’” (ESV)

July 29, 2019May 25, 2020

Empowering Love

Because God loves you, he gives you strength and ability to do all that is his will.

During the summer before my senior year in college, I worked for a carpenter building houses. For my first day on the job, I brought my own hammer to work. It was a typical hammer used around the house, measuring about 13-inches long. My job was to pound large, 16-penny, framing nails into 2×4 studs to make walls. I quickly learned that my little hammer was not up for the task. It required way too many strokes to sink each nail, and I would need to sink several hundred nails each day.

My new boss let me use that for an hour or two, to make a point I suppose. Then he walked up, said, “Put that pea-shooter away,” and handed me one of his hammers. It was about four-inches longer, and heavier, and the head had sharp teeth to bite the head of the nail so as not to slip off with a glancing blow. This was a professional-grade framing hammer. It was powerful. I could sink a nail in one-third the strokes.

I had a job to do and needed power to do it. My boss empowered me with a tool.

Kinds of power

Power comes in many forms. I not only needed a professional-grade hammer for my task, I also needed energy, lots of it. I was on my feet all day, lifting heavy stuff, swinging my hammer, climbing ladders and walls. My boss was a furiously hard worker and kept his crew going at a fast pace. So, I needed food and water. How glad I was to be newly married and have a wife who woke up early to make me a filling breakfast of eggs and toast and meat, as well as to make me a big lunch to take to work with a cold thermos of water. I had a job to do and needed power to do it. Nancy empowered me with food and water.

We all need power in other forms. We can’t work successfully, for example, without wisdom, skill, motivation.

Because my new wife loved me, she met my need for food energy. Love meets the need of another.

God’s love behind your power

God loves you, and so he meets your need for power. He empowers you in many ways. He provides abilities and skills, motivations, the infilling of his Holy Spirit, wisdom, coaches and teachers, education, money and capital, tools, technology, hands and fingers that move and legs that can walk and eyes that can see and ears that hear and a brain that can think. In all these ways and more, he meets one of the greatest needs you have: the power to work, act, move, produce, achieve, build, and create.

Unless God in love chose to give you each of these empowering resources, you would be utterly impotent, weak, and incapable. “From him and through him and to him are all things” (Romans 11:36, ESV).

The apostle Paul wrote, “Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient” (2 Corinthians 3:5–6).

Moses told the Israelites, “Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ You shall remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth” (Deuteronomy 8:17–18).

Again Paul, speaking about what he had accomplished as an apostle, wrote, “By the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me” (1 Corinthians 15:10).

God’s empowering love

King David recognized the connection between God’s love and his empowerment. David needed power for face-to-face combat, beginning famously against Goliath and followed throughout his lifetime with scores of battles. In Psalm 18 he describes God’s help. Notice what these select verses say about the empowering love of God:

“¹ I love you, O LORD, my strength. … ²⁹ For by you I can run against a troop, and by my God I can leap over a wall. … ³² the God who equipped me with strength and made my way blameless. ³³ He made my feet like the feet of a deer and set me secure on the heights. ³⁴ He trains my hands for war, so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze. … ³⁹ For you equipped me with strength for the battle; you made those who rise against me sink under me. … ⁵⁰ Great salvation he brings to his king, and shows steadfast love to his anointed, to David and his offspring forever.” (Psalm 18:1, 29, 32–34, 39, 50)

In another Psalm he again connects God’s empowerment with his love: “¹ Blessed be the LORD, my rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle; ² he is my steadfast love” (Psalm 144:1–2).

In his love, God met David’s need for strength and skill with a sword, shield, bow and arrow.

Our way and God’s way

Our way: We might proudly rely on ourselves. We might boast and take credit for what power we have. Paul told the Corinthians, “What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?” (1 Corinthians 4:7).

God’s way: God gives us every sort of power we need for what he wants us to do, if we will rely on him through prayer, have faith, and follow his wisdom. He is the vine, and we are the branches (John 15:1–7).

Life principle: I can do all things through him who lovingly strengthens me (Philippians 4:13 with “lovingly” added).

July 22, 2019July 11, 2019

The Inheritance: Your Father Wants to Give You All He Owns

You have a rightful claim to your heavenly Father’s kingdom and possessions, and God will ensure you receive what is rightfully yours.

Imagine how different your outlook on life would be if you were a 15-year-old son or daughter of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. At one point in 2019 he was the richest man in the world, with an estimated net worth of $170 billion. If you were one of his four offspring, you would be an heir to some or all of that money. Suppose his will stipulated that at age 25 you would receive 10 percent of the inheritance; that’s $17 billion. As a teenager, your thoughts about the future, about your plans and hopes and dreams, your sense of security—all would be different than the average person. No matter what problems or challenges you faced from now until turning 25, you would remember and console yourself with the great change that awaited you.

This is the attitude every Christian can have. We are God’s sons and daughters and thus his heirs. He owns everything and promises to give it to his children. The earth and much more we cannot yet comprehend is our inheritance.

Colossians 1:12 says Christians should be “giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light” (NIV). Notice the word “qualified.” One dictionary defines an heir as “one who is entitled to inherit property.” Notice the word “entitled.” This means the heir has a legal right to something. The children of the heavenly Father have a right to all he owns.

Your heavenly inheritance

Consider a few things Scripture teaches about your inheritance.

“I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people” (Ephesians 1:18 NIV).

–We need light to be given to our spiritual eyes to grasp how great our hope in this inheritance can be, how glorious this inheritance is. Its riches are infinitely greater than anything the children of Jeff Bezos will receive. The Bezos children should envy you rather than your envying them.

“All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s” (1 Corinthians 3:21–23).

–Being an heir of God literally means everything is yours, shared with all the rest of God’s children, because everything belongs to your Father. This is your Father’s world, and he delights to give it all to you. You will inherit the whole world.

–Even something negative like death is yours in the sense that Christ has transformed the death of a Christian into something he uses to bring us good. Through death we go from mortality to immortality, from perishable to imperishable, from weakness to strength. We die in union with Christ and his death, unlike those who do not follow Christ, who die in their sins in union with the devil.

“Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him?” (James 2:5 ESV)

–We will inherit the kingdom of God, our Father’s glorious new creation of righteousness, peace, and joy that is coming someday upon the earth. It is our right as a child of the heavenly Father.

“He saved us…so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life” (Titus 3:5–7 ESV).

–We will inherit eternal life. In Christ this is your right.

“The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him” (Romans 8:16–17 ESV).

–Jesus is the heir of the Father, and we are fellow heirs with Jesus. We share in the inheritance of Jesus! What is his is ours!

–Being an heir of God requires perseverance and a willingness to suffer persecution as Jesus did in this life. You can lose your inheritance by losing your faith and falling back in love with the fallen world. Esau is the prototype of this folly:

“See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son” (Hebrews 12:16 NIV).

But for faithful believers in Christ who endure to the end, the story is altogether different:

“You know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward” (Colossians 3:24 NIV).

–Our inheritance is our reward for choosing the true God over false gods.

“By faith he [Abraham] went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise” (Hebrews 11:9 ESV).

–God promised Abraham amazing things, including that he would be singularly blessed, have a great name, be a blessing to the world, and receive the promised land (Genesis 12:1–3; 15:7). Genesis shows that these promises were Abraham’s possession, and therefore they became the inheritance, the heritage, of his son Isaac, and then of his grandson Jacob. They inherited not only property from Abraham but also promises, the promises God gave Abraham. But Abraham has many more heirs, as the following verse reveals:

“If you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.” (Galatians 3:29 ESV)

–That’s right, the glorious truth is that through faith in Jesus Christ we also become the heirs of Abraham and therefore we inherit many of his promises. We are entitled to share in what God promised Abraham.

–Our response to all these glorious promises should be praise and confidence:

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you” (1 Peter 1:3–4 NIV).

The Father’s heart

In the Parable of the Prodigal Son, the wonderful, loving father told his oldest son something that reflects the heart of our heavenly Father toward us: “He said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours” (Luke 15:31). Those words make God’s heart personal and direct to you. Memorize and meditate on them until you believe them with all your heart, and no matter what life throws at you, you can go through every day with firm hope in the inheritance that awaits you.

Ah, Jeff Bezos, you are but a pauper compared to my heavenly Father, and unless your children are followers of Jesus Christ, they too are paupers compared to me.

Our way and God’s way

Our way: The original lie that Satan spoke to Eve in the Garden called into question the goodness of God (see Genesis 3:1, 5), and fallen humans have been swallowing that lie ever since. We may think the Father is holding back his best from us.

God’s way: The Father’s loving generosity is without limit. All he has is ours.

Life principle: We should set all our hope in the gracious inheritance we will receive when Jesus Christ is revealed from heaven. We should sacrifice anything that would compromise it.

July 15, 2019July 3, 2019

July Newsletter

Growing readership

Ninety-eight people have now signed up to receive my free weekly email post. I pray several times each week for these readers. Specifically I ask God to give us the Spirit of wisdom and revelation to know him better, especially that we would grow in our knowledge of his love and holiness, and I pray the Lord’s prayer for us.

Favorite posts

I had a hard time selecting my three favorite posts of the period. If you have not been reading regularly since May 7th, try to make time to go back and read all those posts, because they will change your life. The topic of the fatherly love of God is that powerful and important. My favorites:

Your Heavenly Father Cares about Every Aspect of Your Life

The Intimacy of Absolute Trust

The Connection between the Father’s Love and the Children’s Daily Bread

Blog and personal news

You probably noticed I began using a small image of the blog banner’s blue sky and clouds at the end of each article, along with the theme Scripture:

“Thus says the Lord…Let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me” Jeremiah 9:23-24

I shot that picture looking out our apartment window a few years ago. Nancy and I have lived here on the 20th floor for over nine years, and we have taken thousands of photos of the sky. There is no end to God’s creativity in the heavens. Below is an amazing photo we took of a storm moving in recently (that horizontal line above the dark clouds is the leading edge of the incoming front, not a window curtain! I’ve never seen anything like it).

On the subject of design, below is my favorite color combination in the lead image of the last two months, which I used in the June 17th post. Even with the minimal changes I make each week in theme images, I enjoy the creativity of combining colors and words. I don’t choose any color that strikes me; rather, I have a palette of about 15 colors along with black, white, and all the shades of gray from which I mix and match. Yes, my favorite color is blue. The background’s dark blue in this image reminds me of the color of the sky at nightfall in summer, which I love beyond description.

Nancy and I celebrated our 45th wedding anniversary on June 22. We did the garden circuit over several days. We enjoyed perfect weather at the Chicago Botanic Garden. We also celebrated by going to the Japanese Garden at Jackson Park and the rose garden of Grant Park. The Lord is good, and my love is a red, red rose.

A few weeks ago my son Aaron and I attended a free rehearsal of the Chicago Symphony. Aaron lives in the same apartment complex as we do and leads worship at our church. He is a man of God who like his father earnestly wants to know the Lord and his ways and thus is a careful, observant, meditative reader of God’s Word. He is blessing to me and all who know him.

In upcoming weeks I have more wonderful topics to explore under the fatherly love of God, so be sure to tune in to upcoming emails.

Vision of knowing God

The effort you put into knowing God better is worth it.

Knowing God as he actually is changes you into a better, more loving person. 1 John 4:7–8 says, “Whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.”

Knowing God increases the level of God’s grace and peace in your life. Second Peter 1:2 says, “May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.”

Keep reading every week and improve your life in every way.

July 8, 2019May 18, 2020

Your Heavenly Father Loves to Protect You

What does it mean that God our heavenly Father protects us, since he also allows the evils that occur in our world?

When our sons were young, we went several times for family outings to Starved Rock State Park in Central Illinois. It’s a beautiful, rocky area with many cliffs and gorges. It’s also a dangerous area if you don’t follow the rules. Every year, people fall and die. So, it’s not only a fun place for a family trip but also a nervous place for parents. You want boys to explore and be adventurous, and you don’t want to hold their hand or warn them continually against doing this or that, but the reality is you want to protect them from the real possibility of harm and death.

As a loving Father, our God in heaven has a similar desire to protect his children. King David took comfort from knowing that God resembled a good shepherd who had a rod and staff always ready at his side to fight off hungry wolves and bears (Psalm 23:4). God promises, “Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows my name” (Psalm 91:14, ESV). “The Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen you and protect you from the evil one” (2 Thessalonians 3:3, NIV).

Our favorite Bible stories often are about God’s ability to protect his people. Daniel in the lion’s den. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace. The apostle Peter delivered from a dungeon by an angel.

God is constantly protecting us from a thousand potential harms of which we are not aware. If he withdrew his protection, we would succumb to untold numbers of germs, demons, and accidents. Never does a moment pass that God has not protected you from harm.

Anomalies

However, both the Bible and human experience attest that protection is not the whole story. There are exceptions to the rule. Evil things happen even to God’s people. Job lost everything for a time. Joseph was sold into slavery and taken to Egypt. Cain murdered Abel. John the Baptist was beheaded. The apostle Paul was beaten, stoned, and jailed many times. Stephen was stoned to death. Harmful things have happened to you and those you love.

What makes that especially difficult for believers in the God of the Bible is, we understand that he is all-powerful and all-knowing. He is not in a dualistic battle with evil he cannot contain. Satan and his demons are not all-powerful. They were created by God and have continuing existence only by God’s will. Our Father in heaven must ultimately allow what happens because he foreknows all and enables everything to exist. He is sovereign, never doing evil, but allowing it.

So, God is our Father in the sense that he wants to protect his children from harm but also that he allows them to go through hard, painful things so that they will grow mature, strong, and capable. He occasionally allows harm for the sake of a higher good (Romans 8:28). It’s not ordinary. It’s temporary. But it’s no accident or oversight, for the arm of the Almighty is not too short to protect us.

For example, when my sons came to the age when they would begin middle school and high school, I hated the thought of it. I knew how cruel kids can be to each other. But I also knew my sons had to keep growing and face the world as it is. Although I wanted to shelter them completely from harm, I knew it would be better for them to grow stronger and wiser through the challenges ahead of them.

Can we expect to be protected?

So, where does that leave us in our desire for God’s protection?

1. We should pray for our Father’s protection and expect it.

Our loving heavenly Father delights in protecting us, and as a result his protection is normal and continuous for us in countless unseen ways. So we should never—never—fear.

Psalm 91 describes the normal experience and expectation of God’s people:

“¹ He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. ² I will say to the LORD, ‘My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.’

³ For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence. ⁴ He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.

⁵ You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, ⁶ nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday.

⁷ A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. ⁸ You will only look with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked.

⁹ Because you have made the LORD your dwelling place—the Most High, who is my refuge— ¹⁰ no evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent.

¹¹ For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. ¹² On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.

¹³ You will tread on the lion and the adder; the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot. ¹⁴ ‘Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows my name.

¹⁵ When he calls to me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him. ¹⁶ With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.’” (Psalm 91:1–16)

2. In those exceptional times when God chooses for us the alternative good that will come through suffering, we should trust him and still pray and believe for deliverance.

Paul wrote: “We felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again” (2 Corinthians 1:9–10).

3. If we believe and trust him, our Father always delivers us from evil, either now or in heaven.

When Paul was in prison, he wrote:

“The Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion’s mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen” (2 Timothy 4:17–18).

4. If we believe and trust him, our Father always gives us the strength, courage, and comfort to overcome pain and hardship.

“I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13).

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction” (2 Corinthians 1:3–4)

5. If we believe and trust him, God always protects us from the ultimate evil, which is harm coming to one’s soul.

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, ‘For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:35–39 ESV).

Therefore, beloved child of a protective Father, never fear.

Our way and God’s way

Our way: We fear the many evils this world can bring.

God’s way: He protects us from all evil except what brings our highest good and his greatest glory and gives us grace to overcome.

Life principle: Never fear. Always trust God’s perfect wisdom in ordering your life.

July 1, 2019May 18, 2020

Your Heavenly Father Wants to Train You

We should pray for deliverance from suffering of any kind, and we should believe and expect that God will deliver us immediately. But until that deliverance comes, we should regard suffering as discipline and respond accordingly.

My wife works for the Chicago Public School system as a substitute teacher. That means she is assigned to schools all around the city, in all kinds of neighborhoods, in grades from preschool to 8th. When she comes home at the end of the day, sometimes she tells stories of pleasant classrooms with delightful children. At other times, she returns home like a shell-shocked, mustard-gassed soldier from a losing battle.

In the battleground classrooms, she experiences the bitter fruits of children who have not been properly disciplined first at home and then again at school. If children come from broken families lacking wise discipline, even the best schools have a major challenge on their hands. But that situation is often compounded by some school administrations that do not back up teachers and—believe it or not—even prohibit teachers from handing out consequences. The result is children who have no respect for teachers and a classroom where little productive education happens even for the good kids.

If anyone understands firsthand what a good and loving thing it is to discipline children, it is my wife.

Why suffering?

The Bible says that God in love, like a good Father, disciplines us. He allows pain into our lives, not because he is malevolent but because he is good and knows what will benefit us most long-term. He follows his own advice to human fathers:

“Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him” (Proverbs 13:24 ESV).

Discipline is loving even though it does not feel like love.

Principles from Hebrews 12:5–11

We find the fullest description of this vital principle in Hebrews 12:5–11. Much could be said on this passage, but here I will simply quote each verse and follow with succinct principles.

“Have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? ‘My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him’” (Hebrews 12:5).

–Don’t regard discipline lightly; that is, don’t ignore it, don’t fail to examine your soul for sin, don’t regard suffering as something other than discipline—such as “bad luck” or “one of those things”—and as a result fail to repent of any known sin.

–Don’t let discipline—that is, painful circumstances in your life—make you weary to the point you give up and stop believing God’s promises.

“For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives” (Hebrews 12:6).

–Discipline feels like God is against you, as though he rejects you, but it actually is proof of his love and that he receives you.

–Discipline can be extremely painful. The Greek word mastigoō, translated “chastises” in verse 6, is the word for the scourging Jesus underwent before the cross (the King James, NKJV, and NASB use the word “scourges”; it literally meant whipping). So, “chastises” is rigorous, painful discipline.

“It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?” (Hebrews 12:7)

–For discipline to fulfill its purpose, you must endure it and correct whatever needs correcting. If you give up by no longer trusting God and his words, if you fail to examine your soul and repent of sin, then the discipline will be wasted pain that does not fulfill its purpose.

–The NIV translates the first sentence in this verse, “Endure hardship as discipline.” Certainly we should pray for deliverance from suffering of any kind, and we should believe and expect that God will deliver us immediately. But until that deliverance comes, we should regard suffering as discipline and respond accordingly.

“If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live?” (Hebrews 12:8–9).

–We must renew an attitude of subjection to our Father.

–If we do, the discipline will bring us life.

–Discipline accomplishes its work in the dimension of the human spirit. God is the Father, the Creator, of our human spirit, and therefore he knows what brings it good.

“For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness” (Hebrews 12:10).

–The purpose of discipline is our good, as Romans 8:28 says, “In all things God works for the good of those who love him.”

–When we respond correctly to discipline, it brings holiness. Holiness is good.

“For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” (Hebrews 12:11).

–Discipline is painful, unpleasant.

–Discipline trains us.

–Discipline yields peace.

–Discipline yields righteousness.

Our way and God’s way

Our way: We may regard pain as bad luck, as something God did not deliberately allow, or as something that simply overflows into one’s life because we live in a fallen world.

God’s way: Love seeks another person’s good even if it requires temporarily bringing them pain. Our heavenly Father knows that temporary pain saves us from eternal pain, that some pain saves us from far greater pain, that much good can come from some bad. In love he disciplines with long-term wisdom.

Life principle: When we suffer, we need to submit ourselves completely to God and his purposes and repent of any known sin.

June 24, 2019June 13, 2019

Identity: Our Father Wants Us to Resemble Him

When your heavenly Father infused his identity into your human nature, it was an act of love.

I have four sons, and as a father who loves his sons mightily, I want them to have things in common with me. I gave my last name to all of them, my first name to one of the them, and my middle name to another. In each of them over the years, I have seen in different ways reflections of myself, and at those moments I have been pleased. For example, I competed in gymnastics, and each of my sons competed in gymnastics, and I enjoyed that they did. It is loving to want to have things in common.

It is also a loving thing to want to give gifts to another person. Giving yourself is the highest expression of loving. This loving, self-giving spirit explains the desire of parents to have children in their own image. Fathers and mothers want to give their very selves to their children in a unity greater than any other: the unity of identity. Parents want to give their name to their children. They want to give their strengths to their children, strengths like beautiful eyes, strong stature, intelligence. They want to look at their children and see something of their best selves.

God gives us this desire because this is his desire. This desire to pass on one’s identity, to have an enduring name, to have a lasting posterity in one’s children and children’s children, is also the result of a healthy, righteous self-respect. God has perfect self-respect. In love, he wants to pass his glory on to us. He wants to see his glory in us. This is love for others mixed with proper self-respect.

God’s image

Scripture reveals in many places God’s loving desire to share his identity with us:

“Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’ So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:26–27 ESV).

“We all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” (2 Corinthians 3:18).

“Those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers” (Romans 8:29).

“Put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:24).

You “have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator” (Colossians 3:10).

“You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48).

“You shall be holy, for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:16).

“Then I looked, and behold, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads” (Revelation 14:1).

Our way and God’s way

Our way: Fallen humans don’t want to resemble their Father. They want to leave home and be their own person.

God’s way: He delights to see himself in us. When he infused his identity into human nature, it was an act of love.

Life principle: One of the priceless gifts God has lovingly given you is his identity. You bear the image of God in your human nature. Cherish and respect that gift. More than anything else that you are or that you accomplish, the image of God stamped on your nature gives you value and significance. It ensures God’s love for you.

June 17, 2019May 11, 2020

Your Heavenly Father Rejoices over You

Knowing that God delights in you transforms life from mere duty to endless joy.

Our son took his family to Disney World this week and has texted photos of his girls standing with Mickey Mouse, Goofy and others. The looks of delight on the girls’ faces are priceless. Parents and grandparents live to bring delight to their children.

What do you delight in? Roller coaster rides? Work? A hobby? Reading a particular genre of books? One stocker I visit with at the grocery store delights so much in superhero movies and comic books by Marvel and DC that he attends an annual convention they sponsor, and it’s not cheap. Others that I have visited with in recent weeks have delighted in the NBA playoffs, talking enthusiastically about who is playing well and who they predict will win each series.

The human soul yearns for delight. We hunt for it. We sacrifice time and money for it because our souls long for more than work and tedium, duty and obligation. God hardwired us for delight.

Delight is defined simply as the experience of great pleasure, joy, or satisfaction.

God’s delight

God himself takes delight. When he creates all things in Genesis 1, his delight is evident as he creates every material and living thing with dazzling variety and then at the end of the day pronounces them good. Proverbs 8 personifies God’s wisdom in creation and says, “I [wisdom] was beside him, like a master workman, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the children of man” (Proverbs 8:30–31, ESV). I believe these verses also describe Jesus in his role in creation, for through him all things were created.

So God is not an austere, stoic, grim figure. He is a joyful being who delights in the love between the members of the Trinity, delights in his works in creation, and delights in his children.

God the Father delights in the Son

In particular, God the Father delights in his unique Son.

When John the Baptist baptized Jesus, “behold, a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased’” (Matthew 3:17).

Isaiah prophesied these words about the Father’s feelings toward his special servant, who turns out to be his Son: “Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations” (Isaiah 42:1). The Father’s soul delights in Jesus.

At the transfiguration of Jesus, “behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him’” (Matthew 17:5 ESV).

God delights in us as he delights in Jesus

It’s easy to see why God the Father delights in his wonderful Son. Jesus is perfect, glorious, and righteous in every way. What’s hard to comprehend is that the Father also delights in us, marred by sin, broken, failing him time and again. Nevertheless Jesus said in one prayer to the Father, “You sent me and loved them even as you loved me” (John 17:23).

In this verse, note the words “even as.” Jesus said the Father loved the followers of Jesus even as he loved Jesus. How can that be? How could the Father love fallen humans even as he loves Jesus? Only through Jesus. The followers of Jesus are in Jesus, and therefore we are justified and sanctified in Jesus, and therefore the Father can delight in us even as he delights in Jesus.

Here is how God feels about his gathered people in Zion: “He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing” (Zephaniah 3:17, NIV).

Not only does God delight in his people, he has far greater capacities of delight than we do. His delight in Jesus is infinitely greater than a child’s delights at Disney World. His joy, satisfaction, and pleasure in his unique Son is boundless, greater than our vast universe. And as impossible as it is to imagine, his delight is equally boundless in you. You are the son or daughter in whom your heavenly Father delights.

Our way and God’s way

Our way: We may regard God only as an austere, demanding ruler and judge, and life only as duty and work.

God’s way: At the center of creation is a joyful Father who delights in his children. God delights in you as a good father delights in his sons and daughters.

Life principle: Walking with God is not only about obedience and responsibility, but also about delight, mutual delight. When you delight in your Father’s delight in you, your walk with him is transformed from mere obligation to pleasure.

June 10, 2019May 11, 2020

Your Heavenly Father Cares about Every Aspect of Your Life

We may misinterpret unwelcome situations as God’s indifference, or his silence as apathy.

Imagine growing up with an indifferent father who really didn’t care what happened to you (that may have been the case with you, and if so, this post will be good news indeed). Imagine that he was a “holic”: a workaholic or alcoholic or golfaholic or whateveraholic. What mattered to him was money or fun or ambition or friends, but his kids were an unwelcome responsibility, a burden, a distraction. When you wanted to talk, he didn’t have time. When you needed help, he wasn’t there. When you wanted to play with him, he was too tired.

Your Father in heaven isn’t like that! He cares about you. Everything about you matters to him. He is not forced into dividing his attention between you and his work. He cares about you in the way you always wished your earthly father could and would.

In non-agrarian societies, even the most caring fathers must navigate a continual tension between doing what they must to make a living for their family and actually spending time engaged with their family. But your heavenly Father has no such limitation.

Because your heavenly Father cares, he is sympathetic and compassionate. Because you infinitely matter to him, he has all the time you will ever need with him. When you talk to him, he looks you in the eyes and listens to every word you say. He is never too busy for you, never distracted. When you need help, he gives it.

Your Father cares more than any human could

All that good news is found in 1 Peter 5:7: “Cast all your anxieties on him, for he cares about you” (RSV).

David understood how much he mattered to God, and what he writes in Psalm 139 about the God who cares is as true for you as it was for him:

“O LORD, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether. You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it. Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,’ even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you. For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I would count them, they are more than the sand. I awake, and I am still with you.” (Psalm 139:1–18 ESV)

Active concern

The truth of this Psalm can revolutionize your relationship with your heavenly Father. He cares about you like this, at all times, in things large and small, in every way. He is focused on you and thinking about you with love.

This is true even when your prayers go unanswered. Even when you are sick, even when you are afraid and worried, even when circumstances turn for the worst, even when you taste bitter disappointment. He cares about you.

Because your heavenly Father cares, he is not passive. When the time is right, he expresses his deep concern. David imagined God’s active concern like this in Psalm 18:

“In my distress I called upon the LORD; to my God I cried for help. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears. Then the earth reeled and rocked; the foundations also of the mountains trembled and quaked, because he was angry. Smoke went up from his nostrils, and devouring fire from his mouth; glowing coals flamed forth from him. He bowed the heavens and came down; thick darkness was under his feet. He rode on a cherub and flew; he came swiftly on the wings of the wind. He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him, thick clouds dark with water. Out of the brightness before him hailstones and coals of fire broke through his clouds. The LORD also thundered in the heavens, and the Most High uttered his voice, hailstones and coals of fire. And he sent out his arrows and scattered them; he flashed forth lightnings and routed them. Then the channels of the sea were seen, and the foundations of the world were laid bare at your rebuke, O LORD, at the blast of the breath of your nostrils. He sent from on high, he took me; he drew me out of many waters. He rescued me from my strong enemy and from those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me.” (Psalm 18:6–17 ESV)

This is the picture of a Father who cares! He is not passive about you! David wrote this even though he went through a period of years when he lived as a fugitive running for his life from King Saul. He knew what it was like not to have his prayers answered right away, not to have life going the way he wanted. Nevertheless he knew that through it all God cared about him.

Our way and God’s way

Our way: We may misinterpret unwelcome situations as God’s indifference, or his silence as apathy.

God’s way: Everything that matters to you matters to your heavenly Father, and much, much more.

Life principle: Knowing that God cares enables you to trust and draw near to him in times of need and pain.

June 3, 2019May 23, 2019

Your Father Enjoys Answering Your Prayers

Answered prayer is central to how your heavenly Father wants you to experience his love.

How does God feel about our petitions?

My oldest sons were boys when the first Star Wars movies came out, and when birthdays and Christmas came, I remember their asking for the Star Wars figurines and spaceships that came out as toys. I took the boys to stores and looked at catalogs to see which characters and ships they wanted most. “Can I have this one, Dad?” I thought this stuff was cool, lots cooler than the toys available when I was a kid. I enjoyed buying it, and I really enjoyed giving it and seeing how much fun the boys had playing with it. Giving gifts to your kids can be a strong bonding experience and a great memory.

Asking and giving can be about love, about relationship. That’s the way prayer is with our Father in heaven. Jesus revealed that prayer is much more than a needy person coming to a powerful person for favors. God views prayer as a relationship between a good father and his children. Jesus said:

“Which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:9–11, ESV)

Bonding with God through answered prayers

We all want things, not just “toys” but important things we need or want. It could be a job or a needed pay increase, a healing or wisdom to solve a problem, a spouse or a child. Unfortunately the more we want them, the likelier it is our prayers to God will become merely utilitarian—how can we get God to give us what we ask? Our petitions can become more about the request than about our relationship with the Father who loves us. This is a problem because that’s not how the Father primarily views prayer. For him, prayer is about love and bonding, relationship and time together.

God has designed our relationship around prayer. It is central to how he relates to us. I’ve known people who had a religious background that taught we should never pray for ourselves, but only for others. They learned it was selfish to ask God for anything for yourself. Well, they certainly didn’t learn that from reading the Gospels. No one urges people to pray for themselves more than Jesus.

Why would he do this? Because the Father does not resent our requests or wish we would go away. Rather, the Father loves it when we come to him with our wants and needs. He enjoys our requests. He compares our prayers to incense (Rev. 5:8). He invites us to ask and keep asking until we receive. He enjoys seeing how happy we are when we receive his answers. He enjoys, really enjoys, really really enjoys hearing us say thank you. He enjoys seeing us enjoy what he gives.

Why? Because he is good, generous, and kind.

Prayer is about relationship and love, and that’s why God enjoys it, because he is love. He is a relational being, a giver, a let’s-be-together person.

Moreover, our Father loves our faith. He enjoys it when we have enough faith in him to ask for what we want. This kind of faith brings him glory. God delights in our petitions because he delights in our faith, and that is also one reason why our petitions might take a while to be answered.

Our way and God’s way

Our way: We may not want to take time for prayer. We may want to hurry the process and get the answer as quickly as possible. We may not think God wants us to make personal requests.

God’s way: Prayer is a central and foundation aspect of our love relationship with our heavenly Father. Hearing and answering prayer is one of our heavenly Father’s greatest pleasures. It’s the central activity he shares with us, just as loving human fathers have certain things they love doing with their kids, such as eating popcorn together or going for a bike ride together.

Life principle: If you are not practicing daily prayer that includes asking your Father in heaven for the things you desire most, with an attitude of childlike trust that he will give what is best when it is best, you are missing one of the most important ways of bonding with your Father and experiencing his love.