God’s Heart

https://odb.org/MY/2022/10/14/baby-boy

When Moses recalled God’s love for the ancestors of the Israelites in Deuteronomy 10:15, he spoke about the broader scope of God’s love covering the orphans, widows and foreigners. This extent of God’s love has often also been highlighted in the pages of this blog that God loves those who are weak and oppressed in society. Even Jesus illustrated this when he told the story of Lazarus the beggar and the rich man in Luke 16:19-31. The beggar who ate off the crumps from the table of the rich man when he was alive was in a much more comfortable position at the bosom of Abraham after he died while the rich man was in such torment in Hades that he just wanted a drop of water to quench his thrist.

I think when it comes to the heart of God, He is always for those who are poor, weak, under privileged, oppressed and marginalised. A life lived well and comfortable on this earth is not always a good thing for eternity. That is why Jesus also said before that it is easier for a camel to enter the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God. Wealth and prosperity have a tendency to cloud the judgment of man and lead him astray and away from God.

However, in the era of the church after the death and resurrection of Christ, it is not so much a matter of whether we are poor or rich in life but whether we have Jesus in our life to lead us onto and along the narrow path to eternity. Will we remain on that path? Perhaps if we are comfortable and wealthy, we may become complacent but if we are poor and oppressed, we may be more inclined by our circumstances to depend on God and thus remain on the path of righteousness. Also as God’s heart is for the weak and oppressed, perhaps He is more compassionate to those of us who are poor, weak and oppressed.

I think the lesson today is for us to make the effort to understand the heart of God more and more, and to then fashion our lives to be in sync with Him. We live for God as we have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus. What better way to live for God than to understand His heart more and the lesson today is that His heart is always for the poor, weak, oppressed and marginalised. So if we are a minority in a society and have to bear with all the injustices that come with it, know that God’s heart is with us.