For several months, I've felt the Holy Spirit leading me to contemplate this question: What drives God? What is so important about humanity that He would be willing to put up with all the pain this world brings to His heart? Here is what I believe He wants me to share with you.
Scripture tells us that "God is Love" (1 John 4:8). The Wuest translation says it like this: "God as to His nature is love."
Love isn't just something He does. It isn't just something He feels. Love is His very nature. Love finds its true roots in Him, it springs forth from Him. He is the originator of Love. In fact, I believe He is consumed with Love. He is so consumed with Love that He MUST express it or burst. Please understand that using human terms to describe God stuff is never fully adequate, but it's the best I can do!
He is in love with Love. It bubbles up and out of Him in a constant overflow. The Love in His heart bursts forth with passion and energy unlike anything any human has ever known. It's as though He can't help Himself; He is driven by Love to express and release and indulge that Love. And that's where you come in.
I believe that Love is at the very core of what motivates Him. I'll say this again: It's as though He can't help Himself; He is driven to express and release and indulge His passionate Love. His Love demands to be indulged, and that requires people in whom He can indulge Himself.
We are those people.
That, my friend, is the biggest reason why Believers have been bought by the death and resurrection of Jesus. That, my friend, is why Believers are being cleansed, transformed, and given an eternal destiny.
Our lives are about much more than what we can do for Him. Our lives are about much more than working for Him. We bring a little to that table; He brings a lot. I see this principle reflected in my relationship with my dog. We love each other, but my capacity to give and show love far surpasses his.
Ephesians 2:4 & 7 (Amplified Bible): But God--so rich is He in His mercy! Because of and in order to satisfy the great and wonderful and intense love with which He loved us...that He might clearly demonstrate through the ages to come the immeasurable (limitless, surpassing) riches of His free grace (His unmerited favor) in [His] kindness and goodness of heart toward us in Christ Jesus.
There is no question that He has work for Believers to do, lots of work. He has designed you for work and He has designed work for you (Ephesians 2:10). But, let's face it, if all He wanted was workers, He could have done a lot better than human beings. So there must be a greater reason and purpose for you to exist than simply to work for Him. The French expression for this is "rai·son d'ê·tre", loosely translated as "reason for existing".
I believe He will have assignments for you and for me throughout eternity. Individually and corporately, we will serve Him here and we will serve Him there. But having you around to perform those assignments aren't what drives God. Let's look a little closer at Ephesians 2:7. "that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus."
I'm also thinking about 1 Corinthians 2:9:
"It is written, "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has known what God has prepared for those who love him."
Your greatest rai·son d'ê·tre is to be a person in whom He can indulge Himself, a person in whom He can indulge His own heart full of immeasurable, eternal, bubbling up, bubbling out, intense Love. He is driven to indulge His heart towards, in, and through you! It really makes Him happy to love on you.
The overflow of His heart doesn't stop with you and me. He craves more and more souls in whom to indulge His Love. That's why Jesus paid such a high price for the souls of mankind. That's what drove Him then and that's what drives Him now. His passionate, bubbling-over, can't-be-contained Love will drive Him throughout eternity.
The world is loaded with people who aren't very loveable or even likeable; I should know, I've been one of them. But God is giving me a fresh way to live and a fresh way to see things.
Philippians 2:13 (Amplified Bible) tell us
"[Not in your own strength] for it is God Who is all the while effectually at work in you [energizing and creating in you the power and desire], both to will and to work for His good pleasure and satisfaction and delight."
We should all be learning to care most about what's important to Him. As He changes my heart to care more about what brings Him happiness, I see in the Lost a huge number of potential recipients in whom He wants to indulge His heart. That makes them important to me, even when I don't see much loveable or even likeable in them.
His plan is to wash them and transform them into eternal recipients of His indulgent heart, if only they will let Jesus and the Holy Spirit do their work. Realizing that, I find myself caring about the un-loveable and the un-likeable.
He craves people in whom He can indulge Himself. I think He always will.
Prayer: Father, open my eyes to better understand these truths. Please transform me to be a better recipient of Your unbounded love, and work through me to bring You more recipients of that same love!
Scripture references:
Eph 2:4 But God--so rich is He in His mercy! Because of and in order to satisfy the great and wonderful and intense love with which He loved us,
Eph 2:5 Even when we were dead (slain) by [our own] shortcomings and trespasses, He made us alive together in fellowship and in union with Christ; [He gave us the very life of Christ Himself, the same new life with which He quickened Him, for] it is by grace (His favor and mercy which you did not deserve) that you are saved (delivered from judgment and made partakers of Christ's salvation).
Eph 2:6 And He raised us up together with Him and made us sit down together [giving us joint seating with Him] in the heavenly sphere [by virtue of our being] in Christ Jesus (the Messiah, the Anointed One).
Eph 2:7 He did this that He might clearly demonstrate through the ages to come the immeasurable (limitless, surpassing) riches of His free grace (His unmerited favor) in [His] kindness and goodness of heart toward us in Christ Jesus.
Eph 2:10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
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