Do You Love God?

This is the message given in the Sunday night service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on Sunday, May 23, 2021.  The Bible verses used are Psalm 138.

How do you feel about God?

            Seriously, how do you feel about God?  I mean, we know how we’re supposed to feel.  We know we’re supposed to love God.  We know we’re supposed to be grateful to God.  We know we’re supposed to honor God and worship God and praise God.

            But do we?  Do you?  Be honest about it.  When you think about God, what’s your first reaction?  Is it love?  Is it gratitude?  Is it praise and worship and honor?  Or is it something else?

            If it is something else, God understands.  God understands that there are times when we don’t feel particularly loving toward Him.  God understands, when things get hard for us, that we don’t always feel grateful to Him.  God understands that there are times we don’t feel like giving praise and worship and honor to God.

            God understands, and God will forgive, if we ask.  But that’s not something we should use as an excuse.  And it’s also not something we should take for granted.  God’s forgiveness is not a get out of jail free card, something we can pull out whenever we get into trouble.  God may forgive, but that does not mean God is pleased.  And asking for God’s forgiveness when we have no intention of changing our behavior is not a request God is going to look favorably on.  And while God may be hurt when we don’t love God and honor God and all that, the person we really hurt by failing to do those things is ourselves.

            We read Psalm One Hundred Thirty-eight.  The author of that psalm seems to have no problem feel love for God.  He has no problem feeling grateful to God, praising God, and worshiping and honoring God.  And he tells us why.  See if any of his reasons resonate with you.

            He says he is praising God for his “unfailing love and faithfulness”.  What do you think about that?  Do you think God has given you unfailing love and faithfulness?  Do you feel God’s love now?  Do you feel God is being faithful to you now?

            I hope so.  But maybe not.  We don’t, always.  I’ve had times when I did not feel God’s love.  In fact, I’ve had times when I did not feel God with me at all.  Maybe you have, too.

            Those are tough times, when that happens.  It’s hard to deal with.  We start to question.  We start to doubt.  And it can feel like our questions have no answers, so that our doubts increase.  

            But when I look back on those times, I can see what happened.  God had not abandoned me.  God still loved me and was faithful to me.  What happened was that I was not being faithful to God.  I was not trusting God.  I was wanting God to do things my way.  And when God said no, my way is better than your way, I did not want to hear it.  I thought God had abandoned me, but in fact, I was abandoning God.

            Does any of that apply to you?  When you’ve had trouble feeling God’s love and faithfulness, have you been wanting God to do things your way?  I don’t know--we’re all different.  But I would encourage you to think about it.  See if that applies.  It’s an easy trap to fall into.

            The author of the psalm goes on to say of God, “When I called, you answered me; you greatly emboldened me.”  Has that been your experience?  When you call on God, does God answer?  Does God embolden you, giving you courage and confidence?

            I hope so.  Sometimes God does not answer right away, of course.  And sometimes it can be hard to hear God’s answer.  And sometimes, we don’t want to hear God’s answer, because it’s not the answer we wanted.  But my experience is that God always does answer.  God answers in God’s time, and in God’s way.  The answer might come directly from God, but it might not.  It might come from an inner feeling.  It might come through things that happen.  It might come through someone else.  But God will answer.  We just need to be open to hearing God’s answer.

            And God’s answer should give us courage and confidence, even if it’s not the answer we wanted to hear.  Because, again, when I think of times when God has given me an answer, God’s answers have always been right.  It may have taken me a while to see that, but they were.  Always.  I hope that’s been true for you, too.  If it is, that should give us confidence that God’s answers will be right again.  It should give us the courage to trust God and even praise God.

            The author of the psalm has more to say.  He says, “Though the Lord is exalted, he looks kindly on the lowly; though lofty, he sees them from afar.  Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life.”

            There’s a lot to unpack there.  The Lord is exalted, yet He “looks kindly on the lowly.”  That’s a statement of grateful praise right there.  Because God is exalted, God would not have to look kindly on us lowly human beings.  God would not have to take any notice of us at all.  But God does.  That’s pretty awesome, right there.

            Do you feel that God looks kindly on you?  I hope so.  But again, it can be hard sometimes.  It can be hard because life can be hard.  We have bad stuff happen.  Sometimes that bad stuff is our own fault, because of bad decisions we’ve made, but sometimes it’s not.  Sometimes bad stuff happens because of things out of our control.  And when it does, we can wonder where God is.  We wonder why God did not stop it.  We wonder if God really does look kindly on us.  We wonder if God even cares about us at all.

            But that’s why the author goes on to say, “Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life.”  He knows he is going to have trouble.  He’s going to walk right smack dab in the middle of it.  He does not say God is going to keep him out of trouble.  He does not say God will make things easy for him.  All he says is that, when the trouble comes, God will preserve his life.

            God did not set up life to be easy for His followers.  When you look at the greatest heroes of the Bible, they very rarely had easy lives.  Moses had to run for his life to escape the Egyptian authorities.  Joseph, of “coat of many colors” fame, was sold into slavery.  Many of the great prophets had their lives threatened.  The Apostle Paul was imprisoned more than once.  The list goes on and on.

            But that did not mean God had abandoned them.  God did not keep them out of trouble.  In fact, it was obeying God that specifically got them into trouble on earth.  But God was with them through their trouble.  And God brought them through their trouble, as long as they stayed faithful to Him.

            So when you don’t feel God’s love, when you feel like God is not answering you, when you feel like God is not looking kindly on you, remember that.  Remember that God does not promise to keep us out of trouble.  Remember that, sometimes, the fact that we’re following God is what gets us into trouble, at least on earth.  

            When that happens to us, it may not seem right.  It may not seem fair.  And it may not be fair, in human terms.  But again, a lot of the great heroes of the Bible had a lot of things happen to them that do not seem fair to us.  And again, God was with them through those times and brought them through those times.  And not only that, God used those “unfair” things they went through to bring about God’s purposes.  God will do that for us, too, if we stay faithful to Him throughout our troubles.

            The author of the psalm says, “Your love, Lord, endures forever.”  God’s love never leaves us.  It never dies.  It never fades.  It never weakens.  There will never be a time when God does not love us.

            I know it can be hard to believe that.  But think how much easier our lives are when we do.  Think about how much pressure it takes off of us, when we simply put our faith and trust in God’s love.  We realize, sometimes to our great relief, that we don’t have to do everything by ourselves.  We’re not responsible for everything.  All we’re responsible for is doing the best we can.  Doing the best we can to love God.  Doing the best we can to serve God.  Doing the best we can to stay faithful to God.  And even if that gets us into trouble, trusting that God will be with us in that trouble and will bring us through it.

            When things go wrong, it can be hard to love God.  But know this:  God always loves you.  When things go wrong, it can be hard to be faithful to God.  But know this:  God is always faithful to you.  Remember all the times God has been there for you in the past.  Remember all the times when God’s answers were better than yours.  It may not be easy.  But trusting loving God and trusting God is always worth it.