December 14
Jonah 1:1-4-11; Revelation 5:1-14; Psalm 133:1-3; Proverbs 29:26-27
In our culture, people struggle with the idea of God’s justice. They can’t understand how a loving God could send people to hell or make moral statements throughout the Bible. People at all times and in all places have always struggled to embrace the picture of God in Scripture, but often for very different reasons.
Jonah struggles to embrace the fact that God is a “gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love.” He can easily believe that God should judge but doesn’t think that God should love. This is the exact opposite struggle that many today have. Jonah is so fed up with God’s grace and love that he won’t obey him, won’t follow him, and won’t do his work.
The picture of Jesus in Revelation 5 as a slain lamb would also have been a struggle for those in both Jonah’s day and Jesus’. Power was to be used to dominate, not sacrifice. Yet Jesus came to become a servant and give up his life on behalf of his creation. His grace, compassion, and love are seen again and again.
We may struggle to embrace the picture of God in the Bible, but what we need to do is recognize that God is worthy of worship for who he is, all of who he is. We should praise him for his judgment and his grace, we should praise him for his wrath and his mercy, and choose to follow him with every part of our lives.
Father God, help me to embrace who you are and follow you. Help me to worship you for who you are and not create my own false idea of you. Amen.
Question: What aspects of God do you struggle with and how can you embrace these characteristics as a necessary part of who God is?
In our culture, people struggle with the idea of God’s justice. They can’t understand how a loving God could send people to hell or make moral statements throughout the Bible. People at all times and in all places have always struggled to embrace the picture of God in Scripture, but often for very different reasons.
Jonah struggles to embrace the fact that God is a “gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love.” He can easily believe that God should judge but doesn’t think that God should love. This is the exact opposite struggle that many today have. Jonah is so fed up with God’s grace and love that he won’t obey him, won’t follow him, and won’t do his work.
The picture of Jesus in Revelation 5 as a slain lamb would also have been a struggle for those in both Jonah’s day and Jesus’. Power was to be used to dominate, not sacrifice. Yet Jesus came to become a servant and give up his life on behalf of his creation. His grace, compassion, and love are seen again and again.
We may struggle to embrace the picture of God in the Bible, but what we need to do is recognize that God is worthy of worship for who he is, all of who he is. We should praise him for his judgment and his grace, we should praise him for his wrath and his mercy, and choose to follow him with every part of our lives.
Father God, help me to embrace who you are and follow you. Help me to worship you for who you are and not create my own false idea of you. Amen.
Question: What aspects of God do you struggle with and how can you embrace these characteristics as a necessary part of who God is?
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