God Loves Us Personally
(2) God loves us personally. We can know beyond a shadow of a doubt the extent that God loves us individually.
Notice God's depth of concern for us, "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3: 16).
How do we know personally that God has such great love for us? We can understand heroic deeds that take place like when a home is on fire. A person may become so excited because of the children in a burning building that he just unconsciously runs into the home and saves their lives. These things are done spontaneously — they happen immediately. On many occasions if we had time to think about what we were doing, we would not do it.
But you see, God planned all His actions. He planned the act described in John 3:16 from the beginning of the world.
Jesus Christ knew, when He was still with God, what He was going to have to go through. And then, as a physical human being living His life out from birth to age 33, He had to look forward to the fateful day He knew was going to come. It wasn't just a spontaneous act — something done on an impulse — but it was real love. And that is the kind of personal love God has for us, individually and collectively. Can we understand it?
God removed the heavy burden we bore as a result of being under the penalty of sin and He gave us rest (Matt. 11:28-30). He helps us handle our Christian responsibilities now. No matter how great the trial might be, He is there when we call on Him. We need to retain these points in our minds to keep from slipping. Otherwise we are losing sight of God, His purpose and His plan. What Christ suffered reveals the tremendous love He has for us.
"God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;
"Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high; Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.
"For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son" (Heb. 1:1-5).
We are called God's sons. God looks at future things as though they already exist. We are His children if we have His Spirit residing in our minds. That Spirit acts as a catalyst to help us perform all that is required of us as His sons.
"And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son? And again, when he bringeth in the first begotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him.
"And of the angels he saith, Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire. But unto thy Son he saith, Thy throne, O God is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom" (verses 5-8).
This is what God is offering us as He looks upon us as His sons. We are playing for large stakes indeed — so we shouldn't take chances. It should be a sure thing. We have a definite guarantee — with His Spirit — unless we abort ourselves.
Notice Christ's assurance, "Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom" (Luke 12:32).
Faith in God's Power
(3) We need to have faith in God and His power to see us through to the end. The apostle Paul said that God will never leave us or forsake us (Heb. 13:5), but what does that mean? The minute we find ourselves in a trial of some sort, we feel like we're all alone — deserted. But we should have the confidence that God will deliver us.
Read in the Old Testament the example of Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego.
They said, in effect: "Okay, if God allows us to die, then so be it. Go ahead and throw us in the fiery furnace." That is real confidence in God. Yet many people can read that example and not apply it personally.
I remember when I was teaching my daughter to swim. She had never been in deep water before in her life or even in shallow water, for that matter, except the bathtub.
I had to build up her confidence that I would be there to insure her safety. I had to reassure her that I would bring her to the side of the pool if she would only slide down the slide into the deep water. As a result she had enough faith and confidence in her father to go down the slide.
She thought she couldn't swim a lick, but the second she hit the water, even though I was there, she began flailing her arms and legs and found out that she didn't need me — and she made it to the side of the pool. And lo and behold, years later she broke a number of swimming records in grade school and high school.
Review Psalm 91 and see the confidence we can have in God. Dwelling on this concept will bring us God's protection and blessing. He will fulfill His promise to make us God as He is God.
Unity
(4) We must have unity No one in the Church is an island to himself. We have been begotten into the Family of God.
A family consists of several members, so no one can be a loner. If you still selfishly feel that you would rather be alone, some faults do exist in your nature.
As the saying goes, blood is thicker than water, but it should not be thicker than God's Spirit. God's Spirit should be an adhesive that binds us together more strongly than anything else.
We should be concerned for one another. We need warmth and a sense of pulling together, especially when there are trials and hardships. We need real family love.
Paul admonishes us to live in the service of God: "I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" (Eph. 4:1-3).
God is not the author of confusion. Neither is Christ divided.
In verse 4 Paul says, "There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling." God hasn't sent part of His Family off somewhere else to start up another Work.
He says, "One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all" (verses 5-6).
If you don't experience this warmth, fellowship and unity, you must feel like you're on the outside — that you're not a part of the Body. If so, you need to come to grips with the problem.
Christ expressed the need for us to be unified as a family.
In praying to the Father He said: "And now I am no more in the world, but these [Christians] are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are" (John 17:11).
Christ prayed that we might have the unity necessary to accomplish the mission we have as the Body of Christ:
"That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me" (verse 21).
This kind of unity has far-reaching effects in the eyes of everyone we meet. When they see this kind of harmony—the kind of concern we show as the Family of God — it convinces them that Jesus Christ did come, sent by the Father.
Verses 22-23: "And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me."
We should be one in mind, purpose, will and deed — in everything. That kind of unity makes us willing to come to the aid of others. The presence of that unity, through God's Spirit, shows God's Church truly exists.
Growth our responsibility
When Esau became careless about his relationship with God, he became willing to trade his rights as the eldest son of Isaac for a meal. And afterward, when he wanted those rights back, it was too late.
"For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears" (Heb. 12:17). Esau had wasted his only opportunity.
We need to build into ourselves solid character on a solid foundation, looking to God for help, and grow in grace and knowledge into the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (II Pet. 3:18, Eph. 4:13).
Then our spiritual driving record will be perfectly clean, and we can avoid the ultimate result of infidelity to the loving God who has called us out of this world and offered us eternal, abundantly happy life: "For if these things [the attributes of Christian character Peter listed in verses 5-7] be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins" (II Pet. 1:8-9).
Remember again the four points in the checklist for Christian growth and the warning in Hebrews 10:26-27: "For if we sin willfully after that we have received, the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries."