Your love is too good to leave me here.
”Our culture has accepted two huge lies. The first is that if you disagree with someone’s lifestyle, you must fear or hate them. The second is that to love someone means you agree with everything they believe or do. Both are nonsense. You don’t have to compromise convictions to be compassionate” . -Rick Warren
This quote has been used to many times to bash others regarding specific beliefs and life choices however that doesn’t negate the truth behind the quote, sometimes we need to love people enough to challenge them into growth. God loves us not just to rescue us from the mire and mud but also to compel us to grow by challenging the attitudes, mindset and traditions in us that hinder that growth.
Through the Bible God shows his love by meeting people in whatever circumstance they are, in the middle of sin, shame, hurt, danger, rebellion, and defeat. He reaches out regardless and offers forgiveness love, hope, relief, freedom. The amazing thing about encounters with God is that he will not leave you the same way he encountered you. There has to be a radical change. He will not let you sit in the attitude of dormancy. He will challenge, he will in the most loving way possible (and sometime not so loving) urge you forward. If he left us where he found us how would we grow?
God’s biggest show of love comes from the times he challenges his people where they are. Where he confronts them on choices and behaviors they have carried on with that are opposed to his word. Sometimes he confronts them for just staying still. We believe that his discipline or that messes in our life are because he wants to control us because life is just hard, because we are fated to always be in a hard place but this isn’t true. Hardship polishes us, the fire forces the dross up, pressure brings out the gifts and qualities needed for us to succeed and grow. Just because we have always had certain behaviors doesn’t mean they are healthy or beneficial for growth. Hardship, stress, difficulty force us to deal with behaviors that otherwise we would ignore or just not realize are keeping us from the fullness of God plan for our life.
God is a gentleman and will only take you as far as you want to go,
Do you want to remain as is or do you want to accept the challenges and become His version of you that is so much more than we can see…
Below are examples of God meeting people where he found them and not allowing them to stay the same.
Read the scripture and pick 2.
Why did their story resonate with you? How did God impact their life.
Zaccheus: Luke 19: 1-9
Abraham: Genesis 12:1-7
Hebrew 11:8-12 Saul(Paul)
Acts 9:1-19 Hagar
Genesis 21:14-20
Read John 8:1-11
Where did Jesus find this woman?
How did he change her life?
What were the benefits of this encounter with Jesus and what where the goals for her life?