What is your idea of what God wants for us? What did you think about it when you were growing up?
All my life, I attended a rather legalistic church: No mixed swimming (boys /girls), no face card-playing. no shorts, to attend church girls had to wear a dress, boys, long sleeve shirt, dress pants. Older guys had to wear ties. My portrait of God was that of a menacing, colossal giant hovering over me, with a scowl on his face, just waiting for me to trip up, to do something wrong. I believed He was eager to find a reason to punish me. When something made me happy, I thought it was just a matter of time until God took it away from me. Some of us think of Him as a "Santa Claus; other hurting souls believe He has turned from them. But what does His word say?
Jeremiah 32:40-41 And I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good for them. I will put a desire in their hearts to worship me, and they will never leave me. I will find joy doing good for them and will faithfully and wholeheartedly replant them in this land.
Note the emotional word: God will "find joy" over us to do us good. It makes God exuberantly happy to do good for us. According to Strong's, that good is "delightful." Our Creator wants to delight us. And He is on our side, when no one else is (or when it feels that way). He wants "good" for us. He isn't sitting up there hoping we will slip up; God is rooting for us to live joyous lives. And even when we feel totally alone, we never are. God is always there. We cannot move beyond the reach of His love.
So what should we do when we don't see God as the Bible depicts Him?
1. we need to pray. Even though God knows what we are going through, He wants to hear it from us. He can help us to grasp His love for us.
2. we need to steep ourselves in Bible passages that show God's love and how much we mean to Him.
3. we all go through ups and downs in our faith walk. Fellowship with friends who are in stronger faith stages can be very helpful. Sometimes we literally need to cling to their faith, until ours is stronger.
Read literature that increases our awareness of what God wants to do for us.
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