Title: The Heart of God
Contents
Lamentations 3:33 The original heart of God
One day his father called his son and scolded him and said, “We don’t need a guy like you in our house. Get out and die right now!” Then, this adolescent son was being bullied by his friends at school and had just cut off his girlfriend and said, “Why am I like this? People like me are unnecessary in this world!” My father said he didn't need him and told me to die right away, so I sometimes hear the ridiculous news that his real father hates him and hates him, so he goes out and commits suicide.
How would your father feel at this time? Why don't you hold onto your son's body and weep like this? “Hey, boy, why don’t you understand Abby’s feelings so much? You bastard, where's the one who really dies for me to die? Oh, you filthy child in this world!” Ladies and gentlemen, as parents of children, you sometimes experience similar incidents. In other words, it is the case that the children do not know the true intentions of the parents, and the parents do not know the true intentions of the children.
And when they do not know each other's true feelings, it is not only a problem between parents and children, but also between lovers, sometimes not knowing each other's true feelings. Therefore, there are times when we have to say goodbye to each other in tears because we love each other very much but do not know each other's true feelings. It was the same with Gapdol and Gapsoon in Korea in the old days. “They said they loved each other. But because we hid our true feelings for each other, we got married to someone we didn't even want and wept endlessly."
And even between a teacher and a disciple, there are cases where they do not know each other's true intentions. When the teacher severely rebukes the students for the best of luck, they say, “Ugh, why are you doing that, you brat?” In some cases, the relationship between a teacher and a disciple collapses altogether by accusing the teacher to his mother or to his father, who has worldly power, who likes to slander and, even worse, to flirt. In other words, if we do not know each other's true intentions, misunderstandings lead to mutual trust and misunderstandings, and then people who should live together and people who should cooperate with each other are separated and divided.
So is our relationship with God. Because God is omnipotent and omnipotent, He knows our true heart and heart all too well. However, no matter how smart a human being, it is not easy to understand the heart of God without the power of the Holy Spirit. In the case of ordinary people, when judging God with the narrow mind of man, there are many cases where they can roughly guess the heart of God, but do not know the true intention of God. Therefore, God's children, who should completely love God and trust God, do not trust God and thus leave God and fall into unbelief.
Especially if you believe in God and good things happen, it's okay, but after believing in God, or from the day you decide and practice to believe in God better, when big and small incidents and problems occur here and there, you can't understand God's true intention and have fellowship with God. There are often people who quit. In today's text, the people of Israel were like that. Because the people of Israel at that time were in trouble. Lamentations 3:19 describes that suffering as 'wormwood and bile'. In other words, Israel was going through bitter suffering at that time.
Israel is a blessed people before God, but after neglecting God's blessings and turning their backs on God, they experienced refinement in the field of suffering. Looking at this situation, the prophet Jeremiah sang a song of mourning, Lamentations of Jeremiah. In fact, the walls of Jerusalem and the temple in Jerusalem were completely destroyed and all the smart people were taken captive. It is literally a scene of torment and disaster.
In the midst of this, God is constantly telling the truth of God. Today's text also says: “It is not your intention that you should suffer and grieve throughout life” (Lamentations 3:33). And Jeremiah 29:11 says, “I know that I am toward you, says the LORD, not of calamity, but of peace, and of a hope for your future.”
Everyone, are there any hardships, sorrows, and pains that have come to you right now? Do not misunderstand God's true intentions with that. “It seems that God doesn’t love me. God must have forgotten me.” Don't think dangerously this way. Even if you have hardships right now, God's true intention is not to make you suffer and put you in danger and disaster to kill you. God's true intention is not to make us unhappy. Rather, it makes us happier.
How do you believe it? How would you like to hear a story like this? You never know how strong rivers are anywhere in Africa. It is said that anyone who crosses the river carries heavy rocks one at a time. This is probably because if it is heavy, it will not float well in the water. What would happen if someone just crossed a river because it was difficult and cumbersome to carry rocks on their backs?
Ladies and gentlemen, there are times when God makes us bear a rock of heavy suffering. It is difficult for everyone at that time. I want to take that heavy thing off quickly. But if you don't carry that heavy thing, you'll float away in the water. Therefore, in order to save us, God sometimes tells us to carry heavy problems and carry that heavy-looking person as well, not just to trouble us.
Ladies and gentlemen, the most important thing in life of faith is to read the true heart of God that I believe in. And it is to keep that intention in my heart and not be shaken. This is 'faith'. Seeing a farmer making his son work too hard, a neighboring farmer said: “Hey, do you really need to work so hard on your son to grow crops?” Then the farmer replied: "I'm not raising crops, I'm raising my son."
Ladies and gentlemen, God's love is higher than this in raising us, God's children. Therefore, do not misunderstand God's true intentions because of things that do not make sense to your thoughts right now. Of course, misunderstanding is free, but if you misunderstand even God's true intentions, your life will no longer depend on it. Keep that in mind. God did not send Jesus to this earth to judge us, but to save us. God has called us to this place today, not to make us tired and take away our time and money, but rather to give us true blessings and peace.
However, sometimes we look up to the sky and look at God with a grudge against God. “God, why are you making it so hard on me?” and sigh heavily. It is because they have misunderstood God's original intentions because they are groaning and complaining toward God like this. Therefore, the Bible often speaks about the true heart of God. Gentlemen, do not misunderstand God's true intention.
In the Bible, there are scenes of misunderstanding God's original intention. One day, Pharisees come to Jesus and tempt Him. “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason?” Then Jesus answers. “Have you not read that the Creator made them male and female and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? Therefore, they are no longer two, but one flesh; therefore, what God has joined together, no man can separate.”
Then the Pharisees asked again: “Then why did Moses give him the certificate of divorce and command him to put it away?” Then Jesus replies: “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because of the hardness of your hearts, but it was not so.” What this means is that while humans are living in a relationship with each other, they are hurting each other and are getting tired of each other and want to get a divorce. God said this through Moses in Deuteronomy 24:1 of the Old Testament. “When a man takes a wife and brings him back, and finds that there is something shameful about him, and he is not pleased with her, he will write a certificate of divorce and give it to him and send her out into his house.”
Just thinking about this verse: “Aha, God allows us to divorce legally!” and can be misunderstood. In fact, the Pharisees misunderstood that. However, God did not say that we should divorce, but no matter how much God told us not to divorce, people divorced and social problems occurred. God had no choice but to allow divorce to solve social problems. Leaving the then wife of a woman without a letter of divorce would have the worse result of turning her into a slave or a prostitute.
Therefore, in order to protect women's human rights, God wrote a divorce letter to formally divorce them and told them not to leave women alone. In other words, God's true intention in marriage is not to divorce, but to forgive and tolerate each other. However, like the Pharisees, if you read the Bible without understanding God's true intentions, you become a heretic, a pseudonym, and believe in God.
Everyone, I want to ask you. How well do you understand God's true intentions? No matter how difficult the circumstances, if you understand God's true intentions, there is hope for you. Because God's true intention toward us is not disaster but blessing, not despair but hope, and not misery but happiness. If you firmly believe in this fact, hope will come true for you according to God's original heart and according to God's plan and providence.
loses. Finally, happiness is achieved. No, you will realize that even the difficult process is in God's plan to create happiness, and you will gain great strength to enjoy even in the midst of suffering.
As a result, the great men of faith understood God's true intentions well. Because of this, I was able to trust God and keep my faith until the end. David was like that. Many great dangers and hardships came to him before he ascended to the throne of Israel. But he understood God's true intentions. “It is not the intention of the Lord to make life afflicted and grieved” (Lamentations 3:33).
Also, Joseph knew the true intention of God well. Therefore, he did not blame God even when he was hated by other brothers, trafficked in persons and sold into slavery, and even when he was unfairly accused of being a rapist and sent to prison. Because he understood the original intention of God. “It is not the intention of the Lord to make life afflicted and grieved” (Lamentations 3:33).
The Apostle Paul also knew the true intention of God well. Therefore, while he preached the gospel, he suffered numerous beatings and suffering, and in the end he was martyred because his head was cut off, but he never once blamed God. Because he realized that God had suffered him so much in order to give him a great reward from heaven, not a simple disaster.
Dear saints, do not forget today's text. God did not send you here to kill you, but to save you, and not to make you unhappy by making you toil and heavy burdens, but to give you greater blessings and rewards. God's true intention toward you is hope, not disaster. Therefore, I pray that you will hold on to God's true heart and win to the end.