Maturing Through Love

As I mature into senior citizen status, I’m acutely aware of this one reality, “My own spirituality grows or wanes in direct proportion to my recognition and acceptance of God’s love for me”. My mind consistently seeks approval from all the wrong sources; the respect of my peers or other material world evidence that “I’m okay”. Yet my heart yearns for a connection with Christ that is so real that it drowns out all the competing concerns of life. Scripturally this state of mind is called “blessed”.

Blessed or blessing is humanity’s natural state. God’s first declaration regarding humanity after He created us was that he “blessed” us with the encouragement to be fruitful and multiply. An interesting truth can be seen here. God blessed the animals, and they remain blessed when they thrive in the natural environment God placed them in, unlike those kept in zoos. He blessed the fish and they too flourish in their natural environment, water. But take a fish from the water and it will quickly perish. What is our natural environment? It is living in God’s presence. We were made in His image and likeness, and it is only as we live out of that natural habitat that we can thrive.

Blessedness is not a common word today. It carries the idea of being loved, provided for, encouraged, equipped and protected. It is a state of being where everything is as it should be, and this should be our “natural condition” from God’s perspective toward us. The blessing of God’s love and care for humanity is unchanging. It is not withdrawn when we do wrong, and it is not increased when we do right. The love of God is constant and unchanging, for God IS love, and God desires that his unconditional blessing and love be shared freely with others.

When God blessed Noah after the flood it wasn’t to him alone that He declared His covenant blessings. He blessed the whole earth, promising that it would never again be destroyed by the chaos waters. He blessed all of humanity by declaring that everyone could now eat flesh. When God blessed Abram, he informed him that it was not for him alone, but for everyone.

Genesis 12:2-3
“And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, and you will be a blessing. And I will bless those who bless you, and the one who treats you with contempt I will curse, and all of the clans of the earth will be blessed by you.”

Abram’s blessing was intended to become a blessing to everyone, and it was clearly displayed when Christ came from the seed of Abram to redeem the world.

When God rescued the children of Israel from Egypt, He took them into the wilderness and revealed to them through Moses that they were to become a kingdom of priests. To what end? To lead the nations back to God and their original state of blessing. The children of Israel never realized their full potential as agents of God’s blessing. Instead, they lost sight of God’s vision for them and became engrossed in their own performance-based religion.

When Jesus came, he consistently demonstrated God’s love in parables and by example. He rejected no one with a sincere heart, even the likes of a Roman Gentile centurion (Luke 7) and the Canaanite woman (Matthew 15). Both of whom he publicly pointed to as having exemplary faith. Meanwhile, he called the Pharisees blind leaders, completely incapable of seeing God’s heart and fixated on performance-based spirituality. In their case, their sin debate surrounded the washing of hands. Today it can be Bible study or church attendance or any number of other religious works which are given more honor than God or Jesus Christ.

Author Danielle Shroyer wrote the following, “If you want short-term obedience, scare or shame people. If you want transformation, anchor them to God’s unconditional love.” I find those words so comforting yet equally confounding because I have spent the better part of my life attempting to be “right with God”. Yet, all along His love has been faithful and true. God doesn’t love us “when” or “if” or “because of”. He loves us because that is His nature. I liken it to walking outside into the sunshine. It matters not whether I’m in a good mood or a bad one, whether I’ve been reading my Bible or playing video games, the sun still shines on me and gives me warmth. That is grace. That is love.

Consider this beautiful section from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians.

Ephesians 2:4-10
“But God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead due to our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved – and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come he could show the immeasurable riches of his grace by his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace, you have been saved through trust, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one can boast. For we are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance so that we would walk in them.”

God’s blessing has always been toward humans. He created us to live in His blessing and to share the same with others and absolutely none of it is deserved. It is entirely by grace emanating from His great love.

My deepest prayer is that I can come to know and accept the fullness of His blessing of love to the end that I can bask in the beauty of knowing I am loved, no matter what. For only then will I have a love for my brother that is just like His… unconditional.

Yours In Christ,