Daily Devotions
A Broken-Hearted God
Title: A Broken-Hearted God
Reading for March 22: Judges 10-12
And the Lord said to the people of Israel, “Did I not save you from the Egyptians and from the Amorites, from the Ammonites and from the Philistines?... Yet you have forsaken me and served other gods; therefore I will save you no more. Go and cry out to the gods whom you have chosen; let them save you in the time of your distress.” And the people of Israel said to the Lord, “We have sinned; do to us whatever seems good to you. Only please deliver us this day.” So they put away the foreign gods from among them and served the Lord, and he became impatient over the misery of Israel.
Judges 10:11, 13-16
Why does God not give up on us?
We show so little appreciation. We turn to our convenient idols for comfort and security. We indulge in our vices so casually. And after all God has done for us! We have no shame!
And it's not that God's love is some kind of mechanical, robotic kind of commitment without any feeling behind it. God feels. He feels deeply. We break his heart when we sin. We grieve his Spirit. Our God is a jealous God. His heart burns within him as he sees us go after other lovers. "Go cry out to the gods you have chosen," he says as we feel the natural consequences of sin.
Yet our God refuses to stop loving us. His love is relentless. He just keeps coming after us again and again whenever we cry out to him in our pain. (And this is pain that we've brought on ourselves because of sin!)
And why is this? Why won't God stop loving us? Why does he welcome us back with open arms? Why does he hear our prayers when we confess our sins to him? Why does he even care when we have brought all this misery and grief on ourselves?
Judges 10:16 provides the answer: "he became impatient over the misery of Israel."
Amazing love!
Father, how can you love us the way you do? Forgive us yet again. We truly are sorry for how we hurt you. We long for the day when we'll never break your heart again.
