For that great Love speaks in the most wretched and
dirty heart: only the tone of its voice depends on the echoes of the place in
which it sounds.
--George MacDonald, “At the
Back of the North Wind”
Twenty years ago I attended
a Wednesday morning church service where I was regaled by one of the associate
pastors on, “The Moods of God.”
“It is critical,” she said,
“that we daily discern what mood God is in.”
Being how I am, I spent the
next fifteen minutes doing a riff (in my head) on God’s moods.
Crikey. God is really
ticked-off today. Better not leave the house.
Hey look! God is quite
cheery. Now’s the time to ask Him for this week’s winning Lotto number.
God is weary of my
two-timing ways so has given up on me. I need to do something big to leverage
His love…Hmmm, I know: Become a missionary to Africa!
Okay. You can stop wincing. The
thing is, most of us actually relate to God in such a manner. While the Bible
reveals God as immutable* (never changes) and self-sufficient** (lacks for and
needs nothing), and, therefore, as not
having “passions” (mood swings), we, however, experience Him as being otherwise
because we believe He IS other than whom He revealed Himself to be in
scriptures and in Christ.
Take, for example, God’s
love:
God’s love is unchanging: it
does not increase because of our obedience or decrease because of what we do or
leave undone. God loves because of Who God is: period. We, however, believe
that His love for us runs hot or cold, depending upon the level of our obedience
or maturity. In other words, we anthropomorphize God’s love so that it is akin
to the love we experience as humans. Our love is often based on
what-have-you-done-for-me-lately, so God’s love must be the same.
Consider the parable of the
Prodigal Son. When his son wished to take his inheritance and go live his life
as he pleased, the father loved him … and let him go. Every day thereafter the
father still loved his son. When the son was wallowing in a pigsty, his father
was home, still loving him. Sure, what the son was experiencing was a world of
hurt. The father didn’t do this, didn’t shove his son’s face in dung. This all happened
because he left his father.
All that the father had for
his son was love. He wasn’t back home angry and condemning his son to all who
would listen. In fact, every day he searched the horizon to see if today would
be the day his son came home. When he finally saw his son from afar, the
celebration for his return was in full swing by the time he walked through the
gate. When he arrived home, there was no recrimination or condemnation: just a
party filled with love and joy. In other words, the father’s love is the “same
yesterday, today, and forever.”
God does not have mood
swings. God’s love for us never changes. He is always showering the world and
us with love and goodness. What does change, however, is how we experience His
love and goodness in our day-to-day lives. This depends upon the contours of
our hearts.
*“ Every
good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the
heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” James 1:17
“Jesus Christ is the same
yesterday, today, and forever.” Hebrews13: 8
**“The God who made the
world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in
temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed
anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else.
Acts 17: 24, 25
Copyright, Monte E Wilson, 2014
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