Our Relationship with God—Finding Confidence in the Love of Our Father

My dear friends in Christ,

     What do you look for when you’re trying to make friends for the first time? What are some of the characteristics you look for first?

     What makes those characteristics so important? Do both of you need to have them, or just one of you? Why?

     Today we begin with the first of a four week series on relationships. We’re going to look at what it means to be single and in a relationship with God. We’ll look at what it means to be married and in a relationship with God. We’ll look at what it means to have a family and be in a relationship with God. Before we can get into those relationships, we need to take a closer look at ourselves and the relationship with have with God.

     With your answers to all the questions I asked, I heard that you look for all kinds of positive qualities in a person. If we find too many negative qualities, we usually don’t find the kind of friend we want to have. What does God see when he looks for people to get to know? What kind of qualities does he find? Let’s take a closer look at a few of the verses from Psalm 103 and pick out the words that describe us. “He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.” (Psalm 103:10,12).  What are the three words that describe us in these verses? Sins; Iniquities; Transgressions.

     King David wrote these words. He knew all about negatives in relationships. He also recognized what caused them. He used three different words to describe what we are like. What is the difference between the three? First, he talks about our sins. What are sins? The Hebrew word “hata” literally means “to miss the mark.” When a dart player throws a dart and tries to hit the bullseye but misses, he has “sinned.” He has missed the mark. What is the bullseye that we are supposed to hit? God’s law in all its perfection. We study the 10 Commandments and quickly see how much and how often we have missed the mark. How does that affect our relationship with God? He demands absolute perfection. We are supposed to hit the mark of his law every single time, without excuse, without mistake. How do we do? We try hard. We focus on loving God. We make worship a priority. We bring our offerings. We pray. We have done all we can to hit the mark and do what he commands. Even our best efforts fall short. Why would God want to establish a relationship with someone who is constantly falling short of expectations?

     David spoke of our iniquities. What are iniquities? The Hebrew word “avon” means bending or twisting. It describes the way we try to get around the demands God makes of us. God demands that we don’t misuse his name. So, we say, “Oh my gosh,” or “Geez,” or “God…” and think that we’ve kept his command because we haven’t said something really bad. We haven’t kept it. We’ve twisted our words so they live up to our own standards. That’s not a great basis for a relationship.

     David also referred to our transgressions. The Hebrew word “pasha” means to rebel or revolt against someone. It is openly destroying a relationship with someone else. The English word transgression portrays that rebellion with the picture of boldly stepping across a line someone has drawn in the sand. Isn’t that how we often treat our God? Transgression began in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. They had a perfect relationship with God, and threw it away because of the serpent’s advice and a piece of fruit. Transgression hasn’t gone away. We throw away a relationship with God too, and for the very same reason. We follow the serpent’s advice. He still whispers in our ears, “Did God really say…?” (Genesis 3:1). Satan wants us to think that God could never really call intimacy that two people share outside of marriage “transgression.” He wants us to believe that God would never call borrowing the neighbor’s wi-fi “transgression.” He wants us to think that God would never consider a few white lies or fibs “transgression.” We listen to his advice, and we have rebelled against God.

     That’s a pretty bleak description of us. Why would God ever want a relationship with us? Oh, there’s just one more thing: “For he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more” (Psalm 103:14–16). What are the two words that describe us in these verses? Dust and grass. Why does David describe us like that? When our lives come to an end, we return to the material God used to make us in the beginning—dirt. Our lives don’t last very long. To God, we live here no longer than a piece of grass in our lawns.

     It’s true, too. We are all born into this world. We will all die and leave this world. No one can escape it. Mankind has searched for the fountain of youth since the day Adam and Eve were banned from the Garden. Today the search for eternal youth includes visits to the plastic surgeon, botox, and skin creams. We head to the gym to try and recover some of our youthful energy. No matter how hard we work, no matter what we do to get rid of wrinkles and excess body fat, we are dust. We are like grass. The wind blows over us and we are gone, and no one remembers us anymore. All those trophies, all those accomplishments, all the wealth—none of it can stop the march of time and our visit with death. Everything we do, everything we are tries to destroy our relationship with God. Why would he want one with us anyway?

     If it was up to us to make this relationship work, it wouldn’t be worth trying. We couldn’t do it! God puts a lot of effort into making it work. Let’s look at some of the words King David used to describe God in Psalm 103. “The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.” (Psalm 103:8).

     David quoted the LORD’s words to Moses on top of Mt. Sinai. He repeated four words or phrases that describe who God is. Can you list them? Compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. That was easy. Now let’s try to define each of them so we can better see what the LORD brings to this relationship.

     What is compassionate? God has a feeling of sympathy for someone who is suffering and has a strong desire to help. The LORD sees what sin has done to us. He feels for us. He wants to do something to help!

     What is gracious? It means that the LORD is tender, mild, and gentle with us even when we don’t deserve it.

     What is slow to anger? That’s the opposite of being quick to anger! God is patient with us. He could easily allow his anger and wrath to destroy us in an instant, but he doesn’t. He holds it back!

     What is abounding in love? God loves us with an undeserved, unlimited love. It isn’t just a little bit of love. His love rolls over us like a wave of the ocean and doesn’t stop there. It keeps rolling, keeps pulling at us, keeps covering us and never stops! God brings some wonderful gifts to this relationship.

     David also listed a number of things that God will never do. He said, “He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.” (Psalm 103:9–10). What won’t God do to us? Accuse, hang onto his anger, give us what our sins deserve. What do you think about this relationship so far? Pretty one sided, isn’t it? He is amazing. He won’t treat us as we deserve—won’t punish us, won’t turn his back on us or get rid of us.

     Why? Let’s look at the next few verses. “For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:11–12).  God won’t do all those things to us because he loves us. He loves us. Can we wrap our brains around that simple statement? How high are the heavens above the earth? Can we measure them? Scientists tell us that they can see the edge of the universe and it seems to be expanding. It’s as high as the heavens are above the earth!

     Where’s the proof? The proof is in the gift he gave. He has removed our transgressions, our sins from us. He accomplished that by sending his Son, Jesus. Jesus gathered up all our missed attempts at a good life. He loaded up all of the times we tried to bend the rules. He carried all of our open rebellion. He hauled every one of our sins to the cross. At the cross we can see how great God’s love is. He was willing to sacrifice his Son—his only Son—in our place. Jesus’ death on that cross removed our sins. Where are they? As far as the east is from the west. Where is that? We can’t find it. The same is true for our sins. When Jesus died, those sins went into the tomb with him. God got rid of them, and he won’t bring them up again. They are gone!

     What does all this tell us about our relationship with God? He wants it. He created us so we could have a relationship with him. He wants it to continue forever. That was the whole point of our gospel reading. “Whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” You and I are worth all the time and effort God put into this relationship. That good news is important for us as we look at our personal relationships in the next few weeks. If we can’t see the value of our relationship with God, we won’t value and work at relationships with anyone else!

     Don’t forget about the last part of the Psalm. God wants us to be active in this relationship. David wrote, “But from everlasting to everlasting the Lord’s love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children’s children— with those who keep his covenant and remember to obey his precepts” (Psalm 103:17–18). Relationships take some work. What do we bring to this relationship? We keep God’s covenant and obey his precepts. We listen to his Word and put it into practice. We can fear, love and trust in him above all things. We can spend quality time with him here in church, or at home when we read his Word, or spend some time in prayer.

     We can’t work on old relationships or build new ones until we know where we stand in our relationship with God. Find confidence in the love of your Father. Once we see that, we know how to treat each other, whether we are single or married, a parent or child, family member or all on our own. In the weeks ahead, as we talk about relationships, remember how much God loves us. Remember what he did for us. Remember what he did for everyone else. That will affect every one of our relationships. Amen.