God LIKES You And There is Nothing You Can Do About It!!
Psalm 139
1 O Lord, you have examined my heart
and know everything about me.2 You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my thoughts even when I’m far away. 3 You see me when I travel and when I rest at home. You know everything I do. 4 You know what I am going to say even before I say it, Lord. 5 You go before me and follow me. You place your hand of blessing on my head. 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to understand! 7 I can never escape from your Spirit! I can never get away from your presence! 8 If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to the grave, you are there.9 If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans,10 even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me.11 I could ask the darkness to hide me and the light around me to become night—12 but even in darkness I cannot hide from you. To you the night shines as bright as day. Darkness and light are the same to you. 13 You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14 Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.15 You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.16 You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.17 How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! 18 I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up, you are still with me!
It's hard to believe that simple concept. God likes me. I mean He really likes me. Most of us are ok with the idea of God’s agape love. That seems like a more acceptable idea. You can love someone and not like them. Most of us have those types of relationships in our own lives. The reality that God likes me, as well as, he loves me can be difficult to wrap our minds around. King David articulates it well. How is it possible for a God so good, to enjoy a man so human. This is overwhelming and “too great to understand.”
Just like you and me, King David knew that he was not very impressive, apart from God’s presence in his life. In fact, David knew he had issues. The scriptures reveal that David was kind of a hot head, and had problems with his relationships to women and his multiple wives (which is not healthy). Despite these character flaws, God was still able to use David and even liked him. In fact, until you fully understand that God likes you, it’s really hard to have a healthy relationship with Him as a Father. You’ll always be either trying to prove that you're worthy of acceptance or avoiding His presence. Kind of like living in a home with an angry parent who you know loves you, but you just can't seem to make them happy, no matter what you do. When you don't believe you're liked, eventually you begin to not like yourself as well. Instead of dealing with your issues in the presence of God, shame causes you to stuff them down into hiding within yourself. Not a good plan. This eventually stunts your growth in Jesus and makes it really difficult to have whole, meaningful relationships with others.
Your relationship with Jesus does not depend on your actions, for you to receive His love. Thank God! So believe it or not, God likes you, and there’s nothing you can do about it. My challenge for us, as a body, is to read Psalm 139 until we fully believe it, and then watch as we grow more into what he has called us too.
Love,
Pastor John