To Encourage You

Nehemiah 9:18-21 “Even when they had made for themselves a golden calf and said, ‘This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt,’ and had committed great blasphemies, you in your great mercies did not forsake them in the wilderness. The pillar of cloud to lead them in the way did not depart from them by day, nor the pillar of fire by night to light for them the way by which they should go. You gave your good Spirit to instruct them and did not withhold your manna from their mouth and gave them water for their thirst. Forty years you sustained them in the wilderness, and they lacked nothing.”

The promises of God are wonderful things.  One of the promises I often turn to is Philippians 4:19: “And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” Another one is James 1:17: “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”  This verse is a promise in hindsight, I guess you could say, for it tells us that every good thing that we’ve ever had in our life has come from the God Who has promised to meet our every need.  But do you ever think about how the needs of others who don’t know the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that the Christian’s worship are met?  For example, what about the Hindus?  They have thousands of gods that they worship?  Is it these gods that meet their needs? What about the Muslims.  Is it Allah who is their provider?  Or what about the atheists? Since they don’t believe in God, who meets their needs?  Do you realize that it’s the God of the Christians that meets everyone’s needs, for He’s the only God that really is? 

We see an example of this in the verses above which are an excerpt from the prayers of the Levites in Nehemiah’s day.  It was a time of revival in the land, but as the Levites looked back over Israel’s history, they recounted the ways God had blessed their nation even when they were worshipping other gods. As a “repayment” for their blasphemy, God had met their every need!  In Psalm 145:16 the psalmist states this wonderful truth about the only true God: “You open your hand; you satisfy the desire of every living thing.”  Notice it says “every living thing.” He’s talking about Christians, but he’s also talking about Muslims, Hindus, and atheists. He’s even talking about Satanists.  A similar statement is made in these words from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount: “For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45).

Just think about this.  Who in the world blesses people that curse them? Who loves those who don’t give them a second thought? Who meets the needs of evil people, people that hate, murder, rape, and steal?  God does, for He’s the only God that really exists. He’s the only God that can! And all the while He waits for us. He waits for those who rebel against Him to come to their senses and believe. He is patient with people. He’s been patient with me!  He met all my needs when I was rebelling against Him. He met all my needs while I went my own way.  What praise He deserves! How we should honor His name! What gratitude He deserves, this One Who meets the needs of the ungrateful each and every day. 

But then He calls those who do know Him to follow His example.  Again, from the Sermon on the Mount, including the words around which the quote from Matthew 5 above was taken: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:43-48).

You see, it is by the love of His true followers that God often reaches out to those who are not following Him (yet).  If the love of the true God is the love that fills our hearts, it will be our desire to follow the incredible example that He has laid down for us and that He has revealed to us in His Word. 

May God help us to love those that don’t love us (or Him) with the love with which He has so wonderfully loved us. May we love with the love of the only true God, this One Who has told us to “love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil” (Luke 6:35).