The God of all creation is faithful, compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. He loves us with a jealous love, which is one of the reasons why he will correct us when we sin against him. You may have heard the phrase, “don’t bite the hand that feeds you”, meaning that we shouldn’t hurt the one who helps us. Though this is a wise sentiment, it is in our nature to sin against God, our redeemer. But thankfully, it is in God’s nature to love us and to ultimately forgive us even when we’ve disobeyed him or have made him angry. I believe this applies to us in our personal relationship with God as well as collectively as a nation. The book of Lamentations highlights this truth this way in chapter 3, verses 31 through 33 which says:
“For men are not cast off by the Lord forever. Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love. For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief on the children of men.”
Though individually, thousands of believers faithfully follow Christ, as a nation we have turned our back on God. We are not the only nation. There are several others around the world who have all but abandoned the faith, have worshipped other gods, or have embraced paganism. But God loves us. And in his love he may correct us in ways that are uncomfortable. He has done it in the past, in many ways he is doing it now, and if we persist, he will do it in the future. It is to our benefit that God loves us so much that he will not leave us to our own devices. He will give us every opportunity to repent. This is also true for us individually. The Bible reminds us that it is not his desire that any of us perish. In our disobedience, he may turn his face from us in our rebellion, or he may show compassion on us in our brokenness. But one thing is for certain, he is for us, he does love us, and it is his desire to be in right relationship with us. Lamentations says, “for men are not cast off by the Lord forever. Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love. For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief on the children of men.” So I would encourage you to pray for our nation and our world. And if you are away from the Lord, I encourage you to pray for forgiveness, because God is compassionate and his love is unfailing.
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It is true that God is slow to anger and abounding in love. But it may take God’s hand of correction to bring us back in right relationship with him. None of us wants to feel the disappointment or anger of the Lord. But tough love is still love. And there are times when that is exactly what we need to save us from destruction. But Lamentations reminds us that “men are not cast off by the Lord forever. Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love. For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief on the children of men.” So I would challenge you, as I challenge myself, to embrace these verses as a warning to us individually and a call to prayer for our nation. We need to humble ourselves before the God who loved us so much that he sent his son to die for us. We do not want to bite the hand that feeds us, so to speak. True believers want to love him, honor him, worship him, and obey him.
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