Part 2 of Love Always Protects
God protects our heart with the grandest of gestures…the work of Christ on the Cross. The death, burial and resurrection serves to cover us with silence. Yes silence…our sins, failures, flaws, and weakness are cast far form the memory of God. He chooses to forgive-and-forget. He builds a covering over us that we could never do ourselves.
We fail to acknowledge that we live in a world at war with an enemy who seeks our destruction at every turn. This enemy uses our failings and weaknesses against us with a lying voice of self-loathing, guilt, and shame screaming from the housetops every time we screw up. Yet God’s protection brings silence. Oh that we could bring that silence to bear against that enemy.
God protects us because He loves us. He has plenty of LOVING ways to get our attention and does not use His protection to manipulate or control us. He would never threaten to take something away from us. FEAR is what we are talking about. Does God use Fear to control us? If so, do we stand a chance of having a healthy bi-directional relationship with Him?
Bad things happen to all of us, eventually. We live in a fallen world where things will go wrong and Scripture says that the rain falls on the just and the unjust alike. We all have something in our lives that we wish we cold have been protected from. God, nor the Scripture, ever promise nothing bad would happen to us. As long as we live on earth we WILL experience pain and loss. Everyone does. The pressures and pains of life are not evidence of a lack of protection, they are the things that prove God’s protection. The good news, in the midst of the hard times, is that God will never cease to transform our HEARTS, regardless of what is thrown at the flesh. Interestedly, God will never override your heart to save the flesh. It’s always about the heart.
Just know that such bad times are NEVER an indication that God has ceased to protect us or that He is punishing us, or teaching us a lesson. In fact, we allow our children to experience hardship or natural consequence to teach them a lesson they will need later in life. But to intentionally hurt your child?? Love never thinks this way.
Remember that the wrath of God is never aimed at His children. It is always directed on behalf of His children.
If God covers us in this manner, then what do we do, in turn, in our personal relationships?
Do we endure/bear with our spouses? Do we to cover their hearts? Do we bad-mouth our spouse to our parents. Don’t’ bad-mouth your wife to anyone. (It is ok in the right context to seek honest counsel in your marriage but always protect her.) Do we wage spiritual warfare on behalf of (i.e. cover over) our spouses and kids?loading…
