For quite a long time, the following two scriptures have been stirring within me... Psalm 62:11-12 and Zephaniah 3:17. I don't remember which one hit me first, and which one came after. But once they both had, they have always been side by side in my mind. Here is what they say...
**
Zephaniah 3:17
The LORD your God is with you,
he is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
he will quiet you with his love,
he will rejoice over you with singing
Psalm 62:11-12
One thing God has spoken,
two things have I heard:
that you, O God, are strong,
and that you, O Lord, are loving.
Surely you will reward each person
according to what he has done
**
I find it amazing. In both of these verses, the strength and love of God go hand in hand. Often, I find it so easy to divorce the two, treating them separately. But the prophets sure didn't do that.
The two attributes of God that David looks to in that Psalm are his strength and his love. Similarly, the prophet Zephaniah points to God's mighty ability to save, and then more than just his love... He even goes as far to say that the Lord delights in His children, and that his abundant love allows his people to rest in his strength. The Lord even rejoices over us with singing (or shouts of joy, depending on the translation)!
In this present day, there seems to be hardship disaster all around us. But this is what I know. That my God is able to fulfill every promise He has given me. The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.
This is what I know. Even with all my inconsistencies or failures or problems or [fill in the blank], God's love for me is as strong as it was ten years ago. "This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins... And so we know and rely on the love God has for us."
Two things that I have heard: that you, O God, are strong, and that you, O Lord, are loving.
1 comment:
I love this post, Justin. So often "love" is paired with "soft" or "gentle" or "sweet" etc... But God's Truth is that love . . . real love . . . is strong. May you, and your soon-to-be-wife Hannah, spend a lifetime discovering the beautiful STRENGTH of God's Love!
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