The Ties That Bind

It's funny how, when He wants to, God can really make a point. I've mentioned before how God kept pointing me to the story of Abraham a couple of months ago, and this week God seems to really want me to learn more about his wrath.

Yeah, I said wrath.

God's wrath seems to have gained such a negative connotation in our world, which I think is often what drives non-Christians away from faith in Christ. But it's not because God's anger is actually a bad thing, but because we, in our fallen state, see God's anger as similar to the anger that presents itself in our day-to-day lives.

What comes to mind when you think of anger or wrath? Road rage? Fights? The bad guy in your favorite movie? An abusive parent? There are so many situations where we see anger in this world, but God's anger is not like most.

God's anger is a righteous anger.

There's a good chance that you've heard this phrase before... "righteous anger." But what exactly does it mean? It means that when God gets angry, it's for a darn good reason.

As human beings, it's easy to get angry or get mad because things don't go the way we want them to. It's easy to get mad because the line isn't moving fast enough, the person in front of you didn't use their turn signal, you can't find your keys, or your stereo's not working. God doesn't sweat the small stuff.

God's anger comes from his divine, fulfilling, and amazing love for us. He loves us so much that it shakes Him to His core when He sees sin ruling our lives; He doesn't get mad when we make a mistake, he gets mad when we don't repent.

It's like the illustration Pastor Derek used today: Imagine you're going for a walk, and across the street you see several guys beating up on an elderly lady. They're kicking her, calling her names, spitting on her, and treating her like dirt. Would you become angry? It would almost be unacceptable to not get angry; if you didn't, your friend walking next to you would probably think there was something seriously wrong with you.

This is kind of like how sin is "beating us up" in our own lives. It leaves us broken and sad, and yet for some reason we keep going back to it. God gets righteously angry because He sees sin attacking us and tearing us down. He wants what's best for us, and yet we don't let the One who created us be the center of our lives.

The fact that you have to ingrain in your mind is God is going to love you, always and forever, thoroughly and completely, no matter how many times you mess up.

But are you willing to open your heart and let Him in? You might say you're a Christian, or you might not. It doesn't matter what you say you are, it's whether or not you follow through with letting Christ in and allow Him to call the shots.

You hear these radicals who stand outside with signs and spit fire as they shout about God's hatred toward humanity and how everyone's going to hell. Hatred is not a God-like characteristic, but righteous anger is. Seriously, I don't think I'll ever grow tired of saying this because it's true and so encouraging: GOD LOVES YOU.

Consider one of my favorite Biblical passages- 1 John 4 (in this case verses 8-17):

^"8Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. ⁹This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. ¹⁰This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. ¹¹Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹²No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. ¹³We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. ¹⁴And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. ¹⁵If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. ¹⁶And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. ¹⁷In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him."

Looooove it. =)