“Happy is the person who loves you [God]” and his friend in you, and his enemy because of you. Though left alone, he loses none dear to him; for all are dear in the one who cannot be lost. Who is that but our God, the God who made heaven and earth and filled them? By filling them he made them. None loses you unless he abandons you, and when he abandons you where can he go or fly for refuge?
For whenever the human soul turns itself, other than to you, it is fixed in sorrows, even if it is fixed upon beautiful things external to you and external to itself, which would nevertheless be nothing if they did not have their being from you.
—Augustine, Confessions 4.9.14
We humans spend a lot of time running from God. As Augustine points out, this is utter futility because try as we may, we cannot ultimately flee from the Source and Author of all life. To make matters worse, when we flee from God in pursuit of lesser things, it just compounds our misery because we deprive ourselves of life.
This is why we read in Scripture of God lamenting over his rebellious people and desiring us to return to him. He created us to have life and like a parent who grieves and becomes angry when he sees his child pursuing things that will surely lead to death, so God grieves for us when we continue in our rebellion and alienation.
God wants better for you. Do you want better for yourself? Spend time this Lenten season pondering these things. Ask God to show you what needs to die in you so that you can develop a relationship with him (or continue to grow in your relationship with him).
Yes, it does; and especially considering that we can’t even comprehend His love completely, in this life.
Amen to your last sentence. Of course we are imperfect examples of parental love but the analogy is valid. Like parents, God’s wrath stems from his love for us, and love always seeks the good for the beloved. Unlike human anger, however, God’s anger is holy and devoid of malice or hatred. It is rather a manifestation of his implacable opposition against evil.
BTW, when we can finally get our minds around this concept, it makes our theology of atonement even richer and our appreciation of God’s love for us in Christ much, much deeper.
On God loving us and grieving when we continue in rebellion: You made a statement in your sermon the other night that I had never considered. It was that God’s heart is broken over our sin. I know that my heart is broken over my sin, and I am sad that I disappoint God. But I had never considered His heart being broken over my sin. That just shows how much He loves me. And again, as in the above, it is like a parent wanting the best for his/her child. I know how that is with my own children….