How God Feels - The One Year Heaven on Earth Devotional

How God Feels

Read: Zechariah 8

This is what the LORD Almighty says: “I am very jealous for Zion; I am burning with jealousy for her.” Zechariah 8:2, NIV

IN WORD

Many people believe God to be calm, objective, unemotional, and completely dignified. It’s an idea that comes from humanity’s highly cultivated religious imagination. It’s a noble spiritual thought that comes from our understanding that God has foreknowledge and is never surprised, and that He is omnipotent and able to accomplish whatever He wants. Theoretically, He has no reason to get excited about much. And He has no inclination to feel emotional pain.

That very religious perception, however, is completely wrong. It isn’t the way God portrays Himself in Scripture. No, when God paints His self-portrait in the words of the prophets, He’s deeply passionate—a Husband wounded by His bride’s adultery, a Father grieving over His prodigal children, a Potter frustrated with the clay He is shaping. And it isn’t all negative: God rejoices and sings with delight over His beloved. There’s nothing bland about Him. He experiences the highest highs and the deepest lows.

That may be hard to express theologically—theology always has a hard time with the emotions of God—but it’s a thoroughly biblical picture. God is burning with jealousy over His people. He zealously accomplishes His purposes. The intensity of His feelings would be overwhelming to us if we experienced them. We would short-circuit if we got a real glimpse of them. Our infinite God has infinite emotions, and He often has them in regard to us.

IN DEED

Spend some time thinking about that today. God’s love isn’t just sentimental pleasantry; it’s an intense burning of passion that is never quenched and refuses to be thwarted. His delight over His children is more than an encouraging word for the day; it’s an ecstatic celebration in heavenly places. And His grief over our sin?— Just a taste of it would be enough to destroy us. The point is that God feels deeply. When we realize the depth of His feeling for us, it’s enough to change our lives forever.

ADDITIONAL READING: Ephesians 3:16-19

Human love is capable of great things. What then must be the depth and height and intensity of divine love?

LORD SHAFTESBURY

From the Book: