This is what the Lord says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity.” Jeremiah 29:10-14
The text above is familiar to most of us…at least part of it. The “plans to proser you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” part is often quoted. Strictly speaking, in context, this is a promise to Israel and not to the rest of us. However, the important part is that it reveals the heart of God and the nature of his love towards his people…and that does come to all of us.
The “God of the Old Testament” is often characterized as angry and vengeful because he visited judgments on the nations that would not repent and turn to him or that were dedicated to the destruction of Israel. And yet, if you read carefully, God took no pleasure in dispatching those judgments. In Ezekiel, God declares, “Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign Lord. ‘Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live'” (Ezekiel 18:23)?
God did send judgments because he is a righteous God, but they came after decades and even centuries of wickedness and after prophets had warned them, time and again, of the coming judgments. In the Jeremiah passage above, we see that God had sent Israel into exile because of her constant, unrepented rebellion and idolatry. And yet, his heart kept calling them back with a plan to restore their relationship with him so that he might bless them again. God takes pleasure in blessing his children. That is the nature of love. Even his judgments or discipline is an expression of redemptive love, as he tries to call his people back so that he might bless them again. The apostle John simply declares that “God is love” (1 Jn.4:16).
What many of us miss is the incredible extent to which God loves each of us. We often think that he may love others that way, but not us. For those of us who grew up in homes where love was not expressed well or where love was not expressed at all, it is hard to comprehend God’s love. For those who grew up In homes where love was highly conditional – based on perfect compliance with a parent’s demand, or where love was highly erratic – never knowing when it would be given or withdrawn, accepting and trusting God’s love is difficult. We too often expect God to love us or not love us as our parents did. And yet, discovering the depths of God’s love for us is the most transformative thing that can happen.
The cross, of course, is the ultimate expression of his love. “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom.5:8). The heart of God has always been to draw us into a close and loving relationship with him…even at great cost to himself. His heart is not to harm us, but to bless us. He does have a hope and a future of each of us. The people I know that have been able to receive that reality have been transformed by it. But, my experience tells me that most of us have not yet fully been able to embrace that revelation.
Oh, we know that is what the Bible says. I know that we believe the Bible and the Bible says that God loves us. But I also know that to believe in our head is not the same as believing in our hearts. This truth of God’s love must penetrate our hearts if we are to be transformed by it. That “heart knowledge” is the challenge. How do we stop seeing God through the template of our experience with imperfect, broken parents and see him as he is?
This must be a work of the Holy Spirit. In his letter to the church at Ephesus, Paul wrote, “I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe” (Eph.1:17-19.).
We need a revelation of God’s love in our hearts…in the deepest part of who we are. If you had amazing parents who loved you unconditionally and consistently, this may be an easier revelation to receive. But, for many of us, only a true revelation of this love by the Spirit can overwrite our debilitating experiences with love in a broken world. Paul said that we need the Spirit of wisdom and revelation to truly know God and his heart for us. We also need the eyes of our heart to receive the revelation so that we may know the hope to which he has called us. In other words, we need revelation so that we can know God’s love for us and so that we can perceive, by faith, the hope and blessings he has prepared for us. I wonder how often we have missed a blessing because we had no faith for it and we had no faith because we still don’t understand how much God loves us?
If you struggle to comprehend God’s love for you, then I encourage you to pray for yourself, the prayer that Paul prayed for the Ephesians. Pray it every day. Ask him to give you eyes to perceive his love and grace that flows into your life on a daily basis. Start looking for what he is doing rather than focusing on what he hasn’t done yet. Ask the Spirit to open your spiritual eyes so that you may recognize his goodness and his hand in your life each day. Develop a lifestyle of noticing and thanking God for the “little things” as well as the “big things.” Comprehending his heart for us and his love is the real key to joy, security, and optimism in a world that tries to rob us of each of those blessings every day. Pray fervently for this revelation and trust that God will give it to you because it is his will for you to know his love. Blessings in Him.