Encouragement

THE JOY OF THE LORD

by Christian Belyea
08/16/19
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THE JOY OF THE LORD

“The LORD is gracious and full of compassion

Slow to anger and of great mercy” (Psalm 145:8)

That the LORD is gracious is so obvious to His children.  Did He not rescue us from the lake of fire reserved for them who spit on His cross?  I mean, He moved heaven and earth figuratively to bring us into His fold.  All He ever wanted was for us to love Him as He loves us.  He is not some cosmic cop in the sky, waiting to clobber us for our sins.  He is a gracious Papa guiding us to eternal life.  He could have written any of us off as not being worthy of His grace.  And when you think of it, none of us are.  Yet God in His gracious nature didn’t want us to die eternally; He wanted us to live in perfect peace and happiness and glory with Him one day.  In fact, He promises we will share the same glorious bodies as Jesus (1 John 3:2).  And not only that, but we will inherit everything Jesus inherits one day (Romans 8:17), for God’s Word says He loves us just as much as He loves His only begotten Son.

Moreover, when it comes to compassion, He lets us call Him Father, for one thing, when we are merely His servants.  For another thing, He does not punish as our sins deserve.  As is written: “Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing that it is the goodness of God that leads us to repentance” (Romans 2:4)?  Additionally, God grants us the desires of our hearts when we ask Him; that is, if our desires will glorify Him and be to our eternal benefit.  That means, little things we want that don’t seem so holy but will only make us happy He gladly grants to show us how kind and sweet and thoughtful He truly is.  And this glorifies Him.

As for being slow to anger.  Which one of us is without sin, grievous sin at times, and He doesn’t strike us down with death, which is the wages of sin He says in His Book (Romans 6:23)?  Yes, we talk smut at times, we gossip, we run other people down who are also made in His image, we get angered easily, we hate some people, we deliberately sin against Him by doing our own thing, and still—He patiently waits these sins out and doesn’t come down on us as He rightfully should according to His nature of justice and the punishment of sin.  Instead, He forgives us. Such a faithful Father He is…

Finally, when it comes to mercy…well, who is more merciful than our God?  I mean, He comforts us in all our troubles (2 Corinthians 1:3).  And He often sends people our way to do this.  And He gives us peace and joy during all our trials, when we refuse to worry about them.  He also knows when we have reached our limits when He tests our devotion to Him.  And He knows just how much temptation we can bear till He tells the devil to back off.  And when He does have to discipline us, He does so as kindly and as mercifully as He can.  He’s always there for us, and He always answers our prayers with a yes, no, wait, or I have something better for you.  So, when it comes to mercy, our LORD is the most merciful Person a guy or girl could ever know.

So, there we have it.  God’s own description of Himself through the psalmist King David rings true; for our loving Father is Truth—and oh, so much more.  And once we have tasted His grace, compassion, patience and mercy, we can never go back.  For no one satisfies as the LORD does to His adopted children—us!

Praise You, Papa Most High!!!