2 Disparate Manifestations of God's Love for Us

You can't have one without the other.

Juliane Liebermann

You've probably heard the adage, "God is love," culled both from experience of those with deep relationships with him and from popular Scripture passages such as, "God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him" (1 John 4:16).

The saying is true.

God is the essence the love—a perfect, unconditional, and consuming love. Yet the effects of this quality manifest themselves in diverse ways. This is to be expected since God's love is deep and consuming; it touches all aspects of our lives. Sometimes the implications of this quality are confusing because of our shallow and shortsighted understanding of the term.

Proverbs 3:9-12 highlights two very different ways God shows his love to us:

The Only Thing Harder than Following God

I have a son who loves to do anything but go to bed when it’s time to go to bed. Perhaps you can relate.

On his way, he’ll find a piece of trash that needs to go in the garbage. Or he’ll pick up a toy and put it away. He does this every night even though I tell him explicitly to go to bed.

Jeremy Bishop

The activities he does aren’t intrinsically bad—picking up after yourself is a good thing—but the context makes them wrong. Essentially he’s doing the right thing the wrong way.

King Saul had this same problem.

What God Wants You to Do When You’re in Distress

I was never happier to be awoken at 2 AM than on a particular night a couple of years ago. My daughter was screaming bloody murder that pierced the low hum of white noise through the baby monitor.

Capture Queen (CC)

But it wasn’t her fear of some she-beast in the closet or some gnome under her bed that made me happy. That would just make me the worst dad ever. No, it wasn’t her screaming that made me happy, but what she was screaming that did:

One Compelling Reason to Get More Sleep

I have a love hate relationship with sleep.

I’m an achievement oriented person which means I don’t feel good about myself unless I’m accomplishing things. It’s a sickness, I know, but God is helping me deal with it. That’s one of the reasons Sabbath is so important. (In case you didn’t know, I wrote a book about it.)

Tambako (CC)

Therefore I’m always trying to cram more into the day: just one more chore, one more email, one more blog post. I reached a point where I found myself staying up later and later and getting up earlier and earlier.

But I came to a profound realization that totally changed my outlook on sleep.

How to Respond to Correction

They laid him on a bier covered with spices and various blended perfumes, and they made a huge fire in his honor. 2 Chronicles 16:14

Dominic Alves (CC)

I can smell the aromas, can't you?

The smoky bonfire infused with the scent of herbs, cinnamon, and aloe—a bittersweet blend for a bittersweet occasion.

But King Asa's burial was especially sobering given the last five years of his life. It was more than the celebration of a life, but also a cautionary tale against those too proud to accept criticism.


How the "Good" King Screwed Up