“Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love… Joel 2:12-13
I love this passage. I am told this passage has sparked revival in people’s hearts. It certainly does mine. It did this morning, for example.
I was reminded that God is slow to anger.
He’s not on edge. He’s not grumpy. He’s not impatient like I am at times.
Human relationships may be like that. Sometimes we have the shortest tempers with people we love most.
All of us have days when due to stress, illness, worry…we are on edge….
…Sadly, others around us quickly know when we are having a bad day…
God is not like that…
God is gracious and merciful….he abounds in a steady, unchanging, unconditional love…
Today, maybe even for just a couple moments, I am reminded that I can take God all my burdens…He can handle them without fret, with complete patience, and without getting angry at my insufficiencies.
And best of all…He wants me too, because He cares.
Do you have a burden(s) you need to cast His way?
Not sure if this is the appropriate place to ask or comment. Yet, here I am. Have the churches, Christians, believers simply torn the trinity apart? Too much God, very little Jesus, the spirit is angry. Too much Jesus, God ignored, the spirit enables/disables. God kills, Jesus saves, Spirit torn apart. Some people I have talked to liken it to our politics even. Republicans kill the spirit before they ever get to teach about Jesus. Democrats (yes, there are Christian Democrats), try to raise the spirits by doing too much for people. Then there are some who have walked away from politics to find the balance. The world who listens to Fox News come out angry, and that is the God they are trying to sell? They leave Jesus out of the equation…there is no forgiveness or mercy, too much salt and it chokes itself out. We as Christians are to reconcile all things to Christ…yet have we? Just as many abortions have been committed within the church as in the clinics. The only difference is we are rating our sins….that name-calling, gossip who tears down others preach and call those who choose abortion a murderer. They forget that God will forgive that person later, if they come to Christ. Those words of condemnation have or can abort someone before they have made the choice. Those words are heard and retained more than the hope. Harsh words do kill the spirit, before the spirit of Christ can be felt. Having ministered to two different choices, I have seen two different outcomes. The one who chose to keep the baby, is now one of the welfare mothers, the very thing that people are opposed to. The one who had the abortion, has now come to Christ, has been forgiven and is doing great things. I am not saying, nor do I believe that abortion is right, far from it. What I do see is that two people committed the same sin, two different choices, two different outcomes. The one who committed the sin of killing is now in God's care, the other, I am not sure now. She has moved away and I have lost contact with her. I can now only pray for her. The first one, I can say, thank you God! A new sister in Christ! Her choice has been reconciled! If God can forgive her, so should we!
When you wrote this article fours ago I don’t think you ever thought someone would search the Internet using the exact same words of the title you gave this article. Yet this very hour, I did just exactly that.
God used you to meet me at exactly my point of need. I just thought let me try and find out about God’s Patient Love, and so typed that. And only one article was available with exactly the same words.
As you encouraged me, I hope you are encouraged by my testimony. May God richly bless you, and multiply your gifts.
Very encouraged. Thank you so much.
Thanks for the reminder Ron! I’m learning again to trust God with everything, and God is teaching it to me through my 14 month old daughter! Watching the way she lives life is a great reminder that God wants me to fully trust Him, to learn from everything and stay positive.
Thanks for ‘pastoring’ me today!