So Don’t Sell God Short!
Do you know of this expression: Don’t Sell Him Short ? If you are not familiar, let me give a brief description for you. The idea is to make sure we don’t think less of a person or fail to consider the greater potential in a person. For years I have fought the urge to do just that with God, my Father. I am certainly still learning to give God the credit He is due and to trust Him to be more and do more than I can imagine. I don’t mean that He will do what I want Him to do. No, I mean that whatever He does will be more than I can imagine because He IS more than I can imagine.
In one area in particular, I have underestimated God’s love for me and His love…period. He IS love (I John 4:16) and has made His love the central theme of life itself. Creation is a display of His love and provision for mankind. Eternity past shows God’s love on display for angels. Adam and Eve as well as the angels before them didn’t grasp nor appreciate nor submit to the love of the Father and Creator. Both the angels and mankind fell away in rebellion and a search for control. They wanted and chased what they thought was better than God’s love provided and would have continued to provide. But they were lethally wrong in both cases.
For you and for me, let’s not make the same mistakes. When I think of God’s love for me and how He has shown it, I am not led to believe that my life has been or will have to be wrinkle-free. I want it to be, but that is not what love does in every situation. Sometimes love accompanies us in the difficult days rather than prevents them. My parents illustrated this in their ways by continuing to provide for me even when I didn’t appreciate it or understand what it took for them to provide for me.
My heavenly Father, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, has loved me, provided for me, and kept me close even when I didn’t appreciate or understand all He has done for me. In fact, I have very little idea of all He has done, which is far more than my parents did, and I know now as an adult and a parent what it took for them to keep giving, sacrificing, and providing for me all those years of my childhood.
One more thing: The love God has given us and commands us to give away is not a mediocre, half-hearted feeling of pity or a legalistic unemotional duty. It is patient, kind, not jealous, doesn’t keep a record of wrongs, it believes and hopes and endures. His love never fails. ( I Corinthians 13:1-13) His love IS love. His love takes our tiny human romantic love and the heat of His love reduces our limited “love” into ashes. On that altar from our ashes God raises up His new, deep, caring, sacrificial, honest, pure, and passionate love then offers it to us to receive and to give away.
So when this life is over and time comes to an end, God’s love will remain. Our future with Him depends on His character and holiness and the fact that He IS love. He keeps His promises. He said it, “Love never fails.” I and we and our nation are in such need of a revival of love, God’s love, in our individual and national life. Perhaps if we pray and seek His face and turn from our wicked ways, He will hear from heaven, forgive our sin (particularly the sin of selling His love short), and heal our land. He can do it. His love is the most powerful motivation and change agent in life. Just look what His love has done for you and the Christ-followers you know.
Why not look into God’s great loving heart and tell Him what you see and ask Him to help us love like He does. That’s how the world will truly know we are disciples of Jesus….by the way we love. John 13:34-35