I Thessalonians 5:9
“For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
We have a tendency to view God in the negative. We are all sinful and have half a dozen things that haunt us. We know that God is omniscient, so we assume He must be disappointed with us. Many of the world religions portray Him as such. Many islands and country’s that have nature-based religions have frightful statues to scare off evil spirits. Fear and anger seem to be common attributes associated with God.
This does contain partial truth. Because we have been separated from God by sin, judgment does await us. The suspicion the things aren’t right between us and God is correct.
What’s wrong in most religions is the conclusions that are drawn about God. He isn’t harsh, distant or angry. It’s understandable why some would think so. Human traits of impatience and unforgiveness are projected on to Him.
That’s not the message of the Bible. He loves us and seeks to connect with and bless us. Paul bluntly says that “He has not destined us for wrath”. We need to hear that. Our imagination puts us there. We have an enemy of our souls, the devil and his demons, that also wants us to misunderstand the Lord.
The grace message of the Bible isn’t natural or human. It’s divine. The Lord went far beyond what is equitable. He sent His Son to die in our place. That’s the forgiveness part. But He goes much further. He doesn’t sulk and and say, “Now, aren’t you sorry?”
He wants to be reconciled and walk with us for the rest of our days. The fellowship at creation has been restored. Our faults will come up, but not because He’s trying to make us feel guilty. That part is done with. It’s a clean slate and often another clean slate, when needed.
Our faults remind us of our mistakes. He wants to work on those in a healing fashion. While our salvation is secure, Philippians 2:12 speaks of working out our salvation. This is the process of making our actions match the clean spirits the Lord has given us. No shame is involved.
Lord, thank You that once Jesus’ sacrifice has forgiven us, the issue of disappointment is gone. Help us to see You as gracious and to work out our issues without shame.