Thread by @GPrater85015

#GeraldsDevotional
The Struggle between Love and Righteousness

The theme that the Lord placed on my heart for this morning’s message is a topic that is seen throughout every book of the bible. God’s incredible and unconditional love for us is the central thread that is woven throughout every story and encounter that we read about. God is

love and the bible tells the story of the love of a Father for His children.

But the bible also clearly says that God is Righteous and Holy from Genesis to Revelation. He never changes and it is not possible for sin or corruption to ever be in His presence even for a brief

moment. In these two things, He is Who He is… with all power, they define His essence and He does not ever change nor compromise.

But for us, this presents a struggle on several levels. First, if we are honest with ourselves, we struggle to understand how such an entity could

exist. How can a father be all-loving yet always demand perfection from his children? Also we struggle with the earthly idea of “If my father truly loves me that much, then he will give me what I want to make me happy.” These are views of God from a worldly perspective that

naturally cause confusion and internal struggle for us.

But God is again all-powerful and able to do anything. He demonstrates His perfect love for us even though we are far from perfect. He does this by giving in so many ways of Himself to help us reach His perfection. He gave

His Son to pay for all of our mistakes (never winking at unrighteousness) and He also makes the Holy Spirit available to us to help guide us to be more righteous like He is. With the help of the Holy Spirit, we can eventually have the ability to be completely in our Father’s

presence. For we will have been completely cleansed of our natural filthiness.

Finally, this is His response to the children who think that their father who loves them should give them everything that they want. God our Father loves us too much to give us what we want for two

very important reasons:

First, He knows that because of what happened in Genesis 3, the things that we naturally desire are not good for us nor for others around us. He KNOWS and He loves us too much to give us what we want because it will hurt us.

Second, also because of what

happened in Genesis 3, we have a natural tendency to be stubborn, to resist change, and to want the world and others (including God) to revolve around us. God knows the place where we all are in our spiritual journeys and again, He loves us too much to leave us at that place. We

have not yet attained His perfect Righteousness and therefore can not yet be with Him in heaven.

All of these things are why we naturally struggle. But all of these things are also why He Is Who He Is and He never changes. This is how He describes Himself in a very famous

conversation with Moses as the people struggled:

13 But Moses protested, “If I go to the people of Israel and tell them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ they will ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what should I tell them?”

14 God replied to Moses, “I Am who I Am.

Say this to the people of Israel: I Am has sent me to you.” - Exodus 3:13-14

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