Infallible Counselors part Five - Abounding Love

 

Abounding Love

 

 

Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day. And because it’s Valentine’s Day, it seems appropriate to speak about the Great Lover of our soul who constantly guides us through life’s minefields as we learn about Him through His infallible Biblical counselors.

 

We continue our series regarding the ongoing, deadly spiritual war raging around us, and we look again to Proverbs 24:6 as our foundational verse: “For by wise guidance you will wage war, and in abundance of counselors there is victory.” (Proverbs 24:6)

 

Scripture warns us so often about the supernatural war in which we are engaged,  and to close our eyes to the battle is to do nothing less than INVITE disaster into our lives and our homes. And so, if we want to be successful in our battle against the dark forces unleased on our world and into our churches, we MUST look the INFALLIBLE counselor God appointed to write the various books in our Bible. We have no other choice if we want to be victorious in the battle.

Today brings us to the Holy Spirit’s assurance of God’s love for His children as told to us by David in Psalm 103. It is our CONFIDENCE in God’s undiluted, unconditional, unearned, and unchanging love for YOU and me that forms the bulwark and the unshakeable foundation of our ability to face life’s battles – and even to face what on the surface of things might sometimes seem our defeat. Here is that text:

“The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.”

 

Some of your translations use the word ‘lovingkindness.’ But I think the NIV and others render the verse better when they translate the Hebrews word, ‘chesed’ as ‘love,’ because in context, that’s what the word means. “The Lord abounds in love.” In other words, God overflows with love toward you. And me.

Now some might step back a moment from that comment and raise the argument that there is surely enough evidence of heartache and tragedy and loss and pain in the history of humanity, and certainly within our own lives, to wonder about the compassion and love of God. And some have, in reflecting on such things, concluded that history and experience certainly seems to contradict the Bible’s declaration of God’s boundless, unconditional, matchless, and unchanging love.  I certainly know people like that. And I suspect all of you have heard such challenges as well.

 

But I say such contradiction only seems to be an apparent contradiction. I emphasize the phrase ‘seems to be apparent’ because things we experience are not necessarily as they appear. Why? Because we do not walk by sight. We walk by faith. Faith in what? That’s the wrong question. We do not have faith in a ‘what.’ The word ‘what’ implies a non-entity. But we have faith in a ‘Who’ – that is in God, the Almighty One for whom, as He tells us, “It is impossible’ to lie (Hebrews 6:18)

 

This is an important distinction between what seems apparent and what is really true. It’s an important distinction because in this supernatural battle, Satan always uses what seems apparent as a powerful weapon to confuse, discourage, and even in some cases, result in some walking away from God.

 

We’ve all known people to whom that has happened. Tragedy struck. They prayed and fasted and prayed. And nothing changed. It appeared as if God was unconcerned and His words in Scripture untrue. But remember, Satan did not seduce Eve to cheat or lie or steal. He seduced her to DOUBT God’s word.

And so, as we return to our text in the Psalms, the infallible Biblical counselor wrote: The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. So, how do we reconcile tragedy and evil and pain and loss with God’s matchless and boundless love?

 

The answer begins to unfold when the Holy Spirit supernaturally gives us faith in the ‘Who’ – and not in the ‘What.’ It begins with the Holy Spirit’s infusing us with greater trust in the One to whom we belong and whom we serve, and NOT in the ‘what is happening in and around my life.’

 

We have got to get it out of our heads that we can generate that kind of supernatural trust on our own. Such supernatural trust in the God whose love abounds toward us does not depend on how often we do our religious things like reading the Bible and receiving the Sacraments.

 

Now, please do not misunderstand me. You know I am a resolute advocate of Bible study for all Christians, along with the reception of the Sacraments for Catholics. Such things are important for our growth in faith. As Scripture tells us, “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17)

 

But I’ve known people – and so have you – who have read the Bible and it made no sense whatever to them. Nor did it change their lives. I’ve known people who have received the Sacraments every week – sometimes every day – and their lives were as their lives have always been. Unchanged.

 

That’s because it happened to them as Jesus spoke of in the Parable of the Sower: “When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart.” (Matthew 13:19)

 

It is BECAUSE the Bible is a supernatural book, we approach it – as I am sure we all who are here today approach it – with prayer and a spirit of humility, knowing it is only when God opens our understanding to His word that we can find His answer to our deepest questions – questions such as how do we explain the apparent contradiction in what seems to be true by experience, and what the infallible Biblical counselors tell us is true.

 

I’ve written before about this incident we had with our then-seven-month-old Bichon puppy. And I mention it again because I think it helps make the point that I need to relearn – and so might you have to relearn.

 

A few weeks ago, Frenchie had a minor surgical procedure for which the Vet gave us instructions about ensuring he wore his protective collar to prevent him from licking the wound and opening the sutures.

 

Because of the collar, Frenchie needed help from Nancy and me to do things for him that he normally does for himself, such as keeping himself clean after toileting. Thankfully, Frenchie was very compliant with everything we had to do for him and to him. And we do not doubt that the reason for his compliance is that he learned over the several months he was in our home that he could trust us.

 

I need to repeat that: He learned he could trust us.

 

So, one morning several days after his surgery, as I placed the soft collar around his neck (which he clearly did not want to wear) I said to him: “Frenchie, it sure is easy to take care of you because you trust me.” And immediately the Holy Spirit broke into my thoughts: “Yes, Richard, it sure would be easier to take care of you if you trusted Me.”

 

Wow. God was so right.

 

Christian! When will we get it? When will we finally receive it and keep it in our souls that we can TRUST God when He tells us His love for us overflows. Even when it APPEARS things are going wrong in our lives, even when it appears He has turned His back on us, even when it appears He is ignoring our most desperate prayers – His love for us overflows.

Oh, may the Holy Spirit help us to do as one of His infallible counselors tells us: “We fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:18)

 
So, while experience may tell me God’s love has not been apparent all the time in my life, my trust in the God who cannot lie and my faith in His word that tells me I do not see the whole picture.

 

And now that I think about it as I prepare this message, have we not all heard others tell us, especially when things become hard for us, that God might be trying to teach us something?

 

Well, certainly that can very much be true. When our road gets hard, the Lord might very well be trying to teach us something. But that is not the only reason He allows pain and heartache and suffering into our lives.  God’s purpose for the rough road might be to conform us into the image of His Son. Here is what St. Paul counsels us:

 

“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

 

Now then, many of us memorized this verse in Romans 8:28 a long, long time ago. But now let’s look at verse 29: “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son,” (Romans 8:28-29)

 

So, taken in context, God causes all things – even bad things – to work for our good – and that could very well mean that He uses those hard things to make us more like Jesus.

 

Listen, Jesus’ life was not all peaches and cream. Hear what the writer to the Hebrews tells us about Jesus: “In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety. Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered.” (Hebrews 5:7-8)

 

Jesus’ road was not all straight and level. It was His learned obedience through the things that He suffered in life that stood by Him in that Garden when He pleaded with His Father to take away the cup, but in the end concluded, “Not My will, but Thine be done.”

 

Let’s look for a moment at one Old Testament hero of faith. He’d lost his entire fortune. He lost all ten of His children. And his body writhed in torment from the boils that covered his skin from head to toe. How did Job respond to his unimaginable suffering?

 

Here is what he said in chapter 6:10 “But it is still my consolation, and I rejoice in unsparing pain, that I have not denied the words of the Holy One.” And hear what he said a few chapters later: “Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him.” (Job 13:15)

 

Job is only one example from Scripture. But there are hundreds of such examples of men and women enduring suffering and – yes – likely wondering at times about the truths of God’s abounding love for them – examples of such men and women long after Job lived, and long after Jesus said in the Garden – “Not my will, but Thine be done.”

 

Many of you might not know the name, Horatio Spafford. But you likely know one of his famous hymns.  Before I quote some of the lines, let me tell you his story:

 

Safford’s 4-year-old son died of Scarlet Fever. A year later, he suffered the loss of his business in a terrible fire. Two years after that, he sent his wife and four daughters for a vacation in Europe. He planned to follow shortly afterward. Enroute to England, the ship Mrs. Spafford and their children were on collided with another, taking with it 226 people to the bottom of the Atlantic. Among the dead were all four of Spafford's daughters. When his wife, Anna, finally arrived in England, she sent a six-word telegram to Spafford. It read "Saved alone. What shall I do?"

Spafford immediately followed on the next ship sailing for England. As his ship crossed the spot where his four daughters drowned, Spafford wrote these words:

 

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way, When sorrows like sea billows roll; Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say, It is well, it is well with my soul.  Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come, let this blest assurance control, that Christ hath regarded my helpless estate, and hath shed His own blood for my soul. . . .  And Lord, haste the day when the faith shall be sight, the clouds be rolled back as a scroll; The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend, even so, it is well with my soul.

 

How could Spafford write such words? How could Job proclaim what he proclaimed? Why would the fully human Jesus say what He said in that Garden?

 

I’ll tell you why and how. Because they trusted that Father loved them. And they all had learned obedience to the Father through the things that they suffered.  

That’s why the Holy Spirit guided our infallible counselor to write: “Therefore . . . we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. (Romans 5:1-5)

 

 

There is a song we often teach our children, “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” We sing it to children, but why when we become adults do we so rarely, if ever, sing that song to ourselves? “Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so.”

 

“The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.” On this day before Valentine’s Day we face a choice. Will we trust what the infallible and inerrant Biblical counselors tell us about God‘s love, or will we trust our experience and the experience of humanity that sometimes seems to contradict the word of God?

 
We live in a broken world. Sin has permeated every fiber, every warp and woof of life. As a result, hearts will break, bones will break. Children will get cancer. Godly men and women will die in accidents caused by drunk drivers. Missionaries and pastors and loving fathers and mothers will be murdered.

 

Listen, please. No one gets through life unscathed. Let us not then be ignorant of Satan’s strategies. Let us never give more credence to our EXPERIENCES than we do to the word of God – which tell us again and again – “The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.”

 

Let me conclude with this infallible counsel from King Solomon, whose words address our hearts in their darkest hours, along their roughest roads, and in the midst of their coldest and loneliest nights: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths.” (Proverbs 3:5-6)