Today’s devotional is about the emotions of God. Some
say that He is stoic, indifferent to pleasure or pain. They think that biblical
descriptions of Him that say otherwise were written for our sake, but are not
the way He actually is, perhaps assuming emotions are evidence of weakness or
making God in our own image?
I don’t agree. He created us in His image. Being in
the likeness of God, even with our sin and hang-ups, we have both positive and
negative emotions that are like those in the descriptions in the Bible about
God. This passage alone is filled with some of the emotions that God experiences.
The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. (Psalm 103:8–13)
“Slow to anger” does not mean “never angry.” Scripture
describes the anger of God against sin. While He may laugh at those who shake
their fist in His face (Psalm 2), anger is an appropriate response to evil from
a Holy God. He continually tells us to be holy as He is holy, and to hate sin
as He hates sin.
However, God is also abundant in love. “For God so
loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should
not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16)
Can that amazing sacrificial love be mere goodness
without emotion? Notice the psalmist says that God’s compassion is like that of
a father for his children. While a dad might be more objective than most
mothers, their love and compassion is strong, full of feeling. Consider the new
father when he first holds his first child. Stoic? Hardly.
One emotion from this passage points to me, not God.
It says in two places, “those who fear him” indicating that the people who are
able to experience His love and compassion are identified by that emotion
toward God. The word is not terror though, but a word for fear that means reverential
awe.
I agree, but it is not the same awe that I felt the
first time I saw the new bridge over the Hoover Dam, or the layers of horizons
in the Blue Ridge Mountains or the face of my first grandchild. It is more than
that. Awe for God is a mixture of wonder at who He is and that He chose to
reveal who He is to me. If I think deeply about Him and what I know about Him,
and about our relationship, I feel a strange emotion that is difficult to
describe. Fear might be a good word, for I know that God can do whatever He wishes.
He has power over life and death, sickness and health, well-being and disaster.
Truly, our God is an awesome God and I am helpless before Him — but He loves me!
One more thought. I believe that the people of God can
feel the emotions of God. Because His Spirit lives in my heart, I feel indignation
at sin even when it has nothing to do with me. I feel love for His people even
when we have nothing in common but Jesus. I also feel joy at the conversion of
sinners, a joy that is unknown to those who do not have Christ in their lives. I
am jealous for the souls of others, and compassionate toward my enemies. These are
not ordinary human responses because without Christ and the Holy Spirit, I would
not feel them or care at all about these things.
The line of a song pops into my head. It says, “Let the
love of God enfold you…” Like some people resist being hugged, some also resist
being loved by this perfect and merciful God. His love is without conditions
and without restraint. Not only does He love, forgive and show compassion to those
who fear Him, He also laughs and hugs and offers His unending joy. He wants to
wrap us up in all that. Wow. He is an awesome God.
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