Soaked In Truth
Psalm 103:8
“The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in loving-kindness.”
When you meet a new friend or start going out with someone for the first time, people around you see and usually will ask you why you like them. So you’ll begin to explain saying: “Conversation just flows”, or “They make me laugh”, or “They are so kind”, or “We have so much in common”. These explanations give the people around you a picture of your relationship and in remembering these traits, can point you to them when the relationship goes through a rough patch. I’ve always had people around me that remind me to soak in the truth of who my friends are at their core and the ways they have exhibited that, rather than stay blinded in a moment of rough patch.
What would you say if I asked you what you like about God? He is our Father, our King, and our Creator, and should be our number 1 relationship. He is so many things to us, so what do you like about Him? He is compassionate. He is gracious. He is slow to anger. He abounds in loving-kindness.
It is so important to remember these truths about your relationship with the Lord because just as with other relationships, things can get rocky. Not because of the Lord’s imperfection, but because of ours. Therefore, to persevere under trial, to learn and grow, these truths about the Lord should be constantly remembered. They should be memorized, soaked into our very bones, thus shining a radiance of life and truth even under trial.
Let’s walk through one of these truths in Psalm 103 and I challenge you to meditate on, soak up, and memorize the other 3 on your own.
Our Lord is slow to anger. In other words He is patient.
It hit me the other day just how patient God is with us. Imagine you had a friend who you’ve known all their life, you know them in and out, but it feels heavily one sided. Beyond that, they know all your pet peeves and sometimes your friend does respect those pet peeves, but a lot of times they don’t, even though they know you hate it and it’s bad for them anyways! Would you continue to pour into that friend?
To be honest with you, it’d be pretty hard for me to and even if I did, I’m sure I’d sinfully lose patience with them easily and often.
This is us with God! But think, times 1,000. God is perfection itself. He created us for a relationship with Him, gave us the law which shows us what God loves and hates. What is good for us and what is bad. Though this is given to us and sacrifice was even made for our relationship, that of His one and only Son, we constantly fall short of the things God desires in us. We can’t even go one day, pleasing the Lord fully by every word and action.
Yet God is patient. He constantly forgives our repented sin and still holds a relationship with Him out for us to grasp when we come back to Him. He loves us through the days and moments we wouldn’t want anyone else to see. He waits for us to understand and repent of one sin in our lives to reveal the others and refine us to Him. He even partners with us, despite our lack of ability to do His will as He desires, and He fills us with purpose.
God does not have to do any of this! He does not need us. He is literally the most powerful being to ever exist and yet He does not choose to cut off our relationship with Him when we can’t hold up our end. He overflows with patience and allows us to come back to Him, fully loved each time we give Him reasons to lose His patience. Beyond that He completely wipes away the past, giving us a clean slate.
Soak that truth into your very bones, enamor yourself in His patience for you and the rest of the world. I pray the Holy Spirit will bring it to mind when the trials hit and you’ll fall more in love with the Lord and His character every day.