Ep 723 ● He is MORE than I / My ETERNAL Security ●

Words of Encouragement, Wednesday May 8th, 2024

Ep 723 ● He is MORE than I / My ETERNAL Security ●

Most Christians would agree, that in the depth of their soul they understand that God is "more." Way more. More than we are in everything. More kind than we are. More holy. More Loving. More wise. More...everything. And if He were to suddenly appear before us today, we would be shocked at how much "more" He really is. Not a big stretch. Its pretty much indisputable.

So when someone challenges us to go deeper in the Lord, and to know & develop His character more in our lives...why do we chaff at those challenges? If we say we believe He is more (and we ALL would), why does that make us feel insecure to acknowledge we are actually less?

It shouldn't. Because our security is not in our own righteousness, or condition, or current level of depth. Our security is in Him and His determined UNWILLINGNESS to ever abandon or leave us as orphans. He has one goal, to never stop helping us find our way to Him and to Heaven. Why is that?

Our own righteousness is not our security. HE HIMSELF is our security. My security is in something unmovable.

I'll never forget the day Linda and I were visiting some good friends of ours, Rick & Janet MacDonald. They pioneered AZHOP...the Azusa House of Prayer. It was a Sunday morning and Rick was doing a teaching about God's Love. What he said was not something new, or that I'd never heard before. Yet for some reason, God chose that moment to give me a lightning strike to my heart concerning His Love, that has never left me. To this day I remain forever "wounded" by that Word. Pastor Rick said something along these lines:

"God cannot Love you any more than He does today. It is impossible. Neither can He Love you any less than He does today. That is equally impossible. God's Love is stable, secure and unmovable throughout eternity."

People say things all the time, but when God says something through a person, it sticks. And boy did that stick! God does not Love you according to YOUR deeds, whether good or bad, but according to His. He is good, not us. The closest example we have to this is parenthood.

When a father or mother delivers a child into the world, they immediately Love that little individual before they have the chance to do anything good or bad. That might change over time in human terms, depending on the behavior of the child. We often change our Love for individuals based on their behavior. But God is better...more than us. God is always more than we are. We can't "out-Love" Him.
Gods character traits are eternal. And His most predominant character trait is Love. "God IS Love." God's Love doesn't change when you change. Period. Fellowship or nearness to God may change, depending on what we do, but not Love. This is the true meaning of unconditional Love. It is Love that's not determined or dependent upon your personal current condition. You change...His Love doesn't.

So why then does God say He hates sin? Some would say that God does not hate anything, but that is not true. Imagine a God who did not hate child abuse. Or murder. Or doing evil to other people He Loves. That would be unthinkable! The Bible does actually say God "Loves righteousness and hates iniquity." (Ps 45:7 & Heb 1:9). So the matter is settled forever in Heaven.

But why? Why does god hate sin & evil? God hates sin because He Loves you. Read that again.

God does not hate a thing just for the sake of hating something. God hates sin because of what it does to YOU. If God did not Love you, He would have no reason to hate sin. "For God so Loved the world (a sinful world), that He gave His Only Begotten Son." (Jn 3:16). And another verse says:

"But God demonstrates His own Love toward us, in that, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
(Romans 5:8)

That really is good news for us. Not that He tolerates or approves of sin. He is not passive about what destroys us. Far from it. He does not stand aloof and let us get away with whatever want to do without acting on our behalf. The commandments of God are not "personal preferences" of God who says I can choose the ones I like. When God labels something as sin or evil, it basically means it is unlike His character, which is always right and good. You can't get better than God. Go's is always "more" than we.

So we see that the commandments are for our good not His. He already has all that He needs. "The earth is the Lord's and everything in it." (Ps 24:1). As one man said, the difference is, "God is not trying to be like you." The truth is, God is so committed to us that He declares that He chastises us. What??

"For whom the Lord Loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives.”
(Hebrews 12:6)

God is more. Let our security be found in His "More-ness" not ours.

Amen.