The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"For Us"
"The prevailing attitude of God's heart abides as "for us" through His redeeming grace in the Lord Jesus Christ even when He must, in love, be against wayward response."
"For us." Two words and five letters roll course through the mind and roll off the tongue or course nearly instantaneously. They speak, however, to a glory of eternally enduring love, grace, and mercy more wondrous than we can ever fully know.
"If God be for us, who can be against us?" (Romans 8:31; emphasis added).
Earthly parents know the sensibility of support for children that runs deeply in heart and mind. We are ever for our children, in times of being pleased with their attitudes, words, and actions, and in times when we are not. In the latter case, the parent's "For us" often shines most brightly when sons or daughters stray from the course we have charted for them. The father of the prodigal ran to greet the son broken by his own sin and failure, hoping he would find the repentance that made the bestowal of mercy and restoration possible. He did, resulting in the fatted calf, the ring on a finger, and the bringing forth of the best robe that bore witness to a returning son, but far more, to a forgiving father (Luke 15:22-24).
Find the most failing believer on the planet in this or in any moment. Our Heavenly Father's "for us" abides for that son or daughter no less than in times when they walked faithfully with Him. Of course, God is not pleased with where that Christian is in response to Him, and we do well to remember that the writer of Hebrews spoke of believers when declaring, "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (Hebrews 10:31). "Whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth" (Hebrews 12:6). The prevailing attitude of God's heart abides as "for us" through His redeeming grace in the Lord Jesus Christ, even when He must, in love, be against wayward response. We do not have the power or influence to change God's fundamental and fatherly disposition toward His redeemed sons and daughters in Christ. "Accepted in the Beloved" abides, even when He cannot accept attitudes, words, and actions that do not align with the glory of the Beloved (Ephesians 1:6).
This truth should certainly encourage us. Knowing that our Father abides faithfully leads us to the throne of grace in times of both faithfulness and unfaithfulness (Hebrews 4:16). However, a measure of fear should accompany our assurance. God's "for us" in heart includes always doing that which is best for us by hand. He will not be swayed by sentimentality if we require chastening and scourging. Love, as defined by the being and word of God, cannot do that. Nor would we want it to. "If God be for us, who can be against us?" No one is the answer, that is, no one can thwart His loving devotion to our well being, and to His working to conform us to the spiritual and moral image of the Lord Jesus. The better we know such faithfulness in our Father's heart, the more we will grow in Christ's faithfulness, as revealed in our hearts.
"Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God."
(I John 3:1)
"Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying Abba Father."
(Galatians 4:6)
Weekly Memory Verse
"This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith."
(I John 5:4)
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