Blog In Audio:
Greetings,
I hope you had a great week and weekend. My week has been good but filled with challenges as well. It was a week to know that God is always good and that we can depend upon Him in all things. We had church in our home yesterday, since the last Sunday of the month at Alife is church deployed. It was a good day.
We don’t depend upon God because of His power. We depend upon God because of His love. God is not merely the all-powerful God; He is our heavenly Father. He gives us life, breath and all things. He is love and as His sons and daughters we are being transformed by the Spirit of God to be people of God. We are being transformed to be people of love. Love is the motivator of free will. Sons and daughters of God are motivated by love, not controlled by mere human conscience or law. God wants us to be the people of God. Being the people of God is the fruit of being a people of God’s presence, praise, and purpose in all things. This is the testimony of God’s manifest presence in the earth.
I believe that God is sovereign in His abilities, but His abilities are subject to the substance of His being. His substance is love. We often define sovereignty as the ability to be all powerful, to know all things, and to be everywhere present at all times. God can intervene in any situation and take control by His power, but there is something more powerful than control. It is the freewill power of love. God doesn’t just want to love us, He wants us to become love for the sake of others. He is quick to draw near to us when we draw near to Him, but He wants us to know the free will power of drawing near to Him. He is the Father at the edge of the road looking for the moment we turn in His direction so He can run to us reaching out to give us all that He has. He wants us to know the power of His love more than the power of His control.
God can know all things, but I believe that love motivates God to choose not to know all things. He has chosen to not remember our sins and our lawless deeds.
Jeremiah 31:34 No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, “Know the LORD,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”
When we receive God’s mercy, our sins and lawless deeds He doesn’t know. His forgiveness of the past erases His knowledge of our failures. The Scripture says that Abraham never wavered in his faith. We can measure Abraham by his testimony as Abram, but God sees Abram through the testimony of Abraham.
Romans 4:20 He (Abraham) did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God…
God remembers people according to His mercy, not according to their transgressions. He remembers those who come to Him with humble hearts. He is willing to take action for those He loves, but it is for the sake of love that He takes action. He does not exercise His abilities for the sake of legalism. He exercises His abilities for the sake of relationship. He will change His mind, because He can never change His character. When we give Him reason to show mercy, He is quick to respond in His mercy, even to the changing of His mind. People with a religious mindset are not willing to change their minds; therefore, they are willing to change their character to enforce what they have legally pledged.
Psalms 9:12 When He avenges blood, He remembers them; He does not forget the cry of the humble.
Psalms 25:7 Do not remember the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions; according to Your mercy remember me, for Your goodness’ sake, O LORD.
Psalms 79:8 Oh, do not remember former iniquities against us! Let Your tender mercies come speedily to meet us, for we have been brought very low.
Isaiah 43:25 “I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake; and I will not remember your sins.
God who could remember chooses not to remember for the sake of His love for men. As the people of God we must see God as the one who loves and shows mercy. He is slow to anger and quick to forgive. He is patient and long-suffering in who He is. Let us see Him for who He is. Let us be people who demonstrate who God is to a world that does not see Him rightly.
Blessings,
Ted J. Hanson
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