Tag: faithfullness

13.z. “Yet I have loved Jacob but Esau I have hated.”

Malachi 1:2  “Is not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the Lord. “Yet I have loved Jacob but Esau I have hated. I have laid waste his hill country and left his heritage to jackals of the desert.” If Edom says, “We are shattered but we will rebuild the ruins,” the Lord of hosts says, “They may build, but I will tear down, and they will be called ‘the wicked country,’ and ‘the people with whom the Lord is angry forever.’” Your own eyes shall see this, and you shall say, “Great is the Lord beyond the border of Israel!”

Deuteronomy 7:6-8    “For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth  It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples,  but it is because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

Jeremiah 31:3   the LORD appeared to him from far away. I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.

We see the love of God and the heart of God.  To fall under the hate of God is dreadful.  On earth being hated by God comes with worry, anxiousness, calamity, always seeking but never finding satisfaction in self, others, or things.  Things you plan will come to nothing even after you have accomplished them.  The end will be apart from God and in this whatever your plans you have or completed will lose all satisfaction.  To be loved by God and to seek and desire Him we find satisfaction the world can never fulfill.  To be loved by God gives us joy in this world and peace and hope in the world to come.   Eternity awaits each of us.  Few will end up in heaven and many will end up in hell.  The choice to be loved by God and to trust Jesus Christ for this love is clear.  To trust Jesus is to love Him, rely on Him, cling to Him, and faithfully follow and obey Him.  This is a choice and intentional choice.  Likewise to reject Him is to deny God’s love and in this rejection, there is only God’s hate, wrath, anger, judgment, and His rejection of you.  Who wants to be hated by God?  However, many do this by rejecting His Son, Jesus Christ, the redeemer, and the savior.  There are consequences for rejecting God and blessings of the love of God for trusting Jesus Christ.   Delaying this choice is living in continued rejection of His love.  Choosing to trust Jesus Christ is to immediately be in and under God’s love.

Rejoice & Praise

“But the righteous shall be glad; they shall exult before God; they shall be jubilant with joy!”

Psalms 35:9  Then my soul will rejoice in the LORD, exulting in his salvation. All my bones shall say, “O LORD, who is like you, delivering the poor from him who is too strong for him, the poor and needy from him who robs him?”

Psalms 35:27  Let those who delight in my righteousness shout for joy and be glad and say evermore, “Great is the LORD, who delights in the welfare of his servant!” Then my tongue shall tell of your righteousness and of your praise all the day long.

Psalms 13:5   But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.

Psalms 21:1  O LORD, in your strength the king rejoices, and in your salvation how greatly he exults!

Psalms 33:21  For our heart is glad in him, because we trust in his holy name.

Isaiah 61:10  I will greatly rejoice in the LORD; my soul shall exult in my God, he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness

Habakkuk 3:18  yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation.

Luke 1:46-47   And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord,  and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

Galatians 5:22   But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

Job 5:15-16  But he saves the needy from the sword of their mouth and from the hand of the mighty.  So the poor have hope, and injustice shuts her mouth.

Psalms 140:12  I know that the LORD will maintain the cause of the afflicted, and will execute justice for the needy.

“My soul will rejoice”, “my soul will magnify”,  “my spirit rejoices”, “I will take joy”, “our heart is glad”, “Praise all the day long”, “shout for joy”, “be glad”, and “jubilant with joy”, are all outcomes of relying on God, serving Him, humbly waiting for His timing, trusting in Him, and clinging to His power, might, strength, steadfast love, mercy, and grace.  I was recently speaking with a godly man who had every reason to be upset about a situation he faced that could have easily ended his life if he had blindly followed instruction from a trusted professional.  When I spoke with him last Thursday he was very upset and could not believe what  could have happened had he not had previous training and understanding and the ability to know this course of action was seriously wrong.  Today his whole mindset was changed.  He was thankful, rejoicing, and praising God.  Why?  Because he realized that God had prepared him long ago for this very incident and kept him from making a fatal decision.  I think this is how we need to look at those issues that pop up in our lives.  What is God trying to show us?  What is He telling our heart?  God is ever present in our walk and it is good for us to take on a heart that rejoices, praises, and lives in joy knowing our God is in full control.