God is love - a Lenten series 6 Love never ends
Psalm 30:5 For God’s wrath endures but the twinkling of an eye, God’s favor for a lifetime. 6 Weeping may spend the night, but joy comes in the morning.
As I read these Psalms I think again about me as a parent. I could get so mad at my kids, but that emotion never threatened the truth of my love for them. I remember as a kid, without the perspective of many years of observing human behavior, thinking, oops, I screwed up again, I'm in trouble, I peed my pants again, mom will be so mad... but when I showed up with my "sin" I was not greeted with banishment from the family. I'd be helped by my family out of my trouble, or grounded - meaning I had to spend more time with my family, or spanked, but never banished.
I don't think God let's his emotions get ahead of him in that he regrets what he does in his anger. I know my parents did, and I as well, declared punishment in the heat of anger only to change it after cooling down. God isn't like that.
Church of Scotland |
As Paul wrote to the Corinthians 13:8 Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end.
Some of us are in hell right now, on earth, in this life. But God's love never ends. Jesus will come. Some of us fear that our friends or relatives, passed from this life, are in hell right now. But God's love never ends. His wrath is brief, a twinkling of an eye, but his favor goes on and on. There is hope this Lent.
Jesus was abandoned on the cross. But joy came in the morning.
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