I Take off the MASK!

It’s easy to say that we should be patient because God has been patient with us.

But we may argue that we have not been as bad as those around us who have offended and harmed us.

We can also say that we are quite ignorant of how God has truly been patient with us, and how we have offended Him.

But aren’t others guilty of the heavier offense? Where is justice then?

How do we reconcile all these?

It is like Job saying, “I am a righteous man, why do I suffer like this?”

Well, there is none who is more righteous than Jesus, and there is also none who suffered like He did!

We, as followers of Jesus will also suffer like He did.

We can’t find the justice we want here on earth.

But then we are told that we should rejoice! Why?! Not because we can see justice being fulfilled in this world, and not because we are happy with the evil being done. But because we have been deemed worthy to suffer for Jesus and like Jesus, and have a great reward in heaven!

Love is not happy with evil.
Love is not happy with injustice.
But love hopes. Love continues to believe. Love endures. And in the end, love will succeed.

It is for this mercy that we are thankful for.
And it is this mercy that we can give away.

We give the same patience that God has given to the world – of putting up with people to their very last breath, until the very last moment they can be saved.

And since we are not God, we don’t know everything in a person’s life. We don’t know if they will change or when they will change. We don’t know how much they may be punished for their sins. We just trust that God is just and that He knows everything. So we put vengeance upon His hands.

To be patient is to trust God and to love Him.
To be patient is to allow God to save us and to guard our hearts from evil.
To be patient is to not lose hope and to fix our eyes upon our true joy, upon eternity.
To be patient is to understand God’s love for us.

One of the most difficult things in dealing with patience is the thought that God is not loving us anymore, that He has forsaken us, and that He has favored those who made us suffer.

We just have to believe that this is not true.

God is patient and merciful even with the damned and the fallen angels. God’s love is the same love Jesus carried upon the cross just to save us.

Even as the Father has loved me, I also have loved you. Remain in my love. -John 15:9 (WEB)

Nothing changes and heals us more than knowing that we are loved, truly loved.  To know that we matter, that we are valued and cared for, that we are seen, that someone is delighted that we are alive.

It isn’t enough to know that one does something good for us.  It isn’t enough that another person sacrifices something for us and desires the best for us.  We still need to know that we are loved, because when we are loved, we are not just a burden or an obligation to be fulfilled.

We are persons, human beings with souls.  We need more than contracts and technicalities.  We need more than existence.  We need life, a life filled with love.

Jesus has given us such a love.  Jesus said, “Even as the Father has loved me, I also have loved you.”  Could there be anything greater than the Father’s love for the Son?

We may doubt Jesus’ love for us.  We may say that Jesus died for us, but that is just because He wants to save us.  But we could never doubt the Father’s love for Jesus.  To know how much the Father has loved the Son is to know how much we are loved.

Salvation is not a reward or a payment we get to deserve through our works (which we cannot do fully on our own in the first place). Neither is it an automatic qualification we become entitled to after the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ. Salvation IS a FREE GIFT of LOVE, which we RECEIVE only out of love and wholehearted faith in the person of Jesus Christ, with the deepest honor, respect, and gratitude for all that He has done.

If we say then that we love Jesus, how can we disobey His commandments and do evil to our neighbour? On the other hand, we also cannot claim that believing in Jesus automatically makes us perfect or without sin. But believing in His mercy and love, we come again and again in repentance, seeking His grace to be able to help us in our journey of faith so that we may persevere to the very end, not forsaking what we have received but surrendering all things, even our helplessness and allowing God to complete the good work He has begun in us.

A relationship of love consist of the cooperation of the two persons involved. It also requires commitment, sacrifice, and many times, a time of trial and testing. When one hurts the other, it needs forgiveness. But before that, a recognition of the offense, repentance and coming back. It also requires trust in the other person, that one can be forgiven and accepted not because one deserves it, but because one knows how much one is loved. One does not however continue hurting the other, but intends to do better and change for the sake of the beloved.

HEAVEN is seeing the face of God, and the face of God is the face of LOVE. Who can therefore go to heaven? They who do not turn away from love.

And how do we know what love is? We know love by knowing JESUS. See the cross and you will know the way.

But is it possible to know love through other means? It isn’t easy to answer that, for being God’s creatures, I think we all have a certain capacity to know love, to receive it, and to give it.

But to be able to know LOVE in such a way as Jesus has shown it, to the highest heights and to the deepest depths, beyond the very limits we are even capable of comprehending, God Himself coming down toward us, becoming man and dying for us in that darkest hour of forsakenness, pain and even death… I don’t think I could ever know such a love other than by knowing it through Jesus.

Without Jesus, how do you save a sinner? What do you tell the brokenhearted? The poor? The sick? The lonely?

It is Jesus who brings not only eternal life, but a life that is worth an eternity.

It is Jesus who loves the person, and it is love that saves.

With Jesus, we are never alone, even in our pain. With Jesus, we find healing.

It is Jesus we are truly longing for. And to those who seek Him, I trust His Mercy. To Him, there is nothing impossible to reach us where we are.