Friday Ramblings…
Not really a question this week, just my musings as I look over the past week and consider the coming weekend. Not really a question, but perhaps, I hope, an answer.
Last Wednesday’s blog “The Ever-Seeking Lover” might just as easily have been titled “The Ever-Loving Seeker.” But the point was the truth that God is relentless in His looking at the horizon for that lost lamb’s return. He keeps calling out to it, seutting out fresh food and warming its blanket. As soon as a glimpse of that long unsheared, now scraggled and soiled coat appears he is ready to run to it. We know this is true for Jesus said so (Luke 15:1-32).
No sheep can shear itself. No prodigal, waist deep in mire, can lift himself out. Both must be rescued, just as they are, from someone without, someone mightier. They must be taken away from where they now struggle, be bathed, clipped, fed and made whole again. They must surrender themselves fully to these hands from away. They must trust themselves to these hands as does clay to the hands of the potter.
Trust is only possible where you know you are loved. Fear is the default when meeting a stranger: will he cut my flesh, feed me poison, make me weaker still? “There is no fear in love,” writes John, the beloved disciple, “But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.” (1 John 4:18).
It is not the “perfection” (the maturity, the completeness) of our love which drives out fear, but an understanding of the completeness of His Love, which only is perfect and holds “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (Jer. 29:11).
Whom else do you have, lost one? To whom else can you turn? The equation which He pleads is simple: “I have set before you life and death… therefore choose life!” (Deut. 30:19). Have at least the good senses of Peter who sat among those to whom Jesus asked, “Will you also go away? Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” (John 6:67-68).
This Sunday will be Valentine’s Day, 2021. There is a card in your mailbox; it is there now. It is from Him who knows you best, yet loves you most. Will you open it? How will you reply?
Press on…
Got a question? Use the Contact page and send It to me. We’ll search the Word for God’s answer.
thebrokenrunner 