WONDERFUL THING IN THIS PASSAGE – Some think of God as a severe judge in the sky watching our every move. His right hand is held high clutching the rod of His wrath, and He’s poised to bring it down on us for any infraction of His uncompromising law. Well…maybe that’s a little overstated, but many do think of God primarily in terms of His displeasure with our failure to measure up.
The Bible paints the opposite picture of God’s posture toward His people. He is indeed following our every step, but there is love and compassion in His eyes, not severity. And keeps His hands positioned directly over us, cupped with all the blessings they can hold, looking for any excuse to release them upon our heads.
“You were called for the very purpose that you might inherit a blessing … For the eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous, and His ears attend to their prayer” (1 Pet 3:9, 12).
WONDERFUL THING IN OUR LIVES – It seems to me that one of the most important questions we can ask (yet one I seldom see discussed) is this: Why did God make us? What was His purpose in creating the human race?
He didn’t make us because He needed us – He doesn’t. He didn’t create us so He could judge and punish us– He didn’t need the trouble. Peter gives the answer in simplest terms: God made us to bless us.
After pondering this question through the Bible for decades, here’s my weak attempt to summarize its answer: God’s purpose, originally in creation and continuing throughout human history, has been to gather a people to bless for eternity in His love and who will rejoice forever in His glory. “You were called for the very purpose that you might inherit a blessing.”
“God is for us” (Rom 8:31). He is not against us. If you can take that personally and put “me” in the place of “us,” and if you can let that settle into the depths of your soul, it will change your perspective on everything. Here are a few passages from God’s Word that may help:
He “has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavens in Christ. For he chose us in him before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in love before him. He predestined us to be adopted as sons through Jesus Christ for himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he lavished on us in the Beloved One” (Eph 1:3-6).
He is “The God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ” (1 Pet 5:10). Therefore, He attends to your prayers, and He desires to answer them in every way that would be best for you. “For the eyes of the LORD roam throughout the earth to show himself strong for those who are wholeheartedly devoted to him” (2 Chr 16:9).
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne … Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.’” (Matt 25:31,34). In the meantime, “Don’t be afraid, little flock, because your Father delights to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32).
Delight in Him, knowing that He delights in you.
