We have a God Abounding in Love
Jonah was angry with God because after he had preached damnation and destruction to Nineveh, they repented and God relented. He said this about God. "I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity." Think about what Jonah knew about God. He was gracious, compassionate, slow to anger, abounds in love, relents from sending calamity.
I have been impressed lately about the number of times we are told in Scripture that God loves us. Jonah said God abounds in love. Do we really comprehend that? To abound in something is to have or possess something in great quantity, to be filled to capacity, to be fully supplied. God has a great quantity of love that he showers upon us; he has no lack of it. In Psalm 59 the psalmist writes, "O my Strength, I sing praise to you; you, O God are my fortress, my loving God." (Verses 9-10 and 17). Over and over in the Psalms it speaks of God's unfailing love. Psa. 36:6 "How priceless is your unfailing love!" Just look at the concordance in your Bible and see how many times God's love is mentioned. It's numerous times.
There is such a short supply of love in the world. Often what people think is love is merely lust and self-serving behavior. We all need and desire love and to be loved. God has an abundant supply of it. The well known verse, John 3:16 says God "so loved the world." He didn't just love the world, he so loved the world. He is passionate about people.
We can see that Jonah certainly didn't have God's heart when it came to the people of Nineveh. He was more concerned about his own image. If Nineveh was destroyed after he preached to it people could see what a great and true prophet he was. He wasn't concerned about the more than 120,000 people who would perish. But God showed his love to Nineveh and spared them when they repented because he loves people. Do we have God's heart for the world; a heart that loves people and wants to see them redeemed?
We are approaching the Christmas season, which is a time when God showed how much he loves us; so much that he sent his only Son into this sinful world to be born as a baby
for the express purpose of dying. Let's examine our hearts and see what we can do to show forth God's love through us. It might be in giving to someone in need, helping a single mother with babysitting, taking a meal to someone, doing a chore for someone who needs help or just blessing someone with a financial gift "just because." Ask God to show how he would have you show forth His love. There are many more creative ways of showing love than those I mentioned. We are God's hands in this world. Let's be His hands extended to show how much he loves people, those in the church and those outside the church. God is love (1 Jn 4:16) He is the very essence of love.
God is good all the time,
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