Month: May 2012

What makes your faith immovable? – Malachi Devotion

Malachi 1:2-5
“I have loved you,” says the Lord. But you say, “How have you loved us?” “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!”[1]

How deep the Father’s love for us,
How vast beyond all measure
That He should give His only Son
To make a wretch His treasure

How great the pain of searing loss,
The Father turns His face away
As wounds which mar the chosen One,
Bring many sons to glory.

This hymn by Stuart Townend captures eloquently the love of God for his people. There is no question that his chosen ones are His and that He has done all to rescue them. Yet, there are times when everything around us says differently.

What is your foundation? What is your bedrock belief that makes you immovable in faith? Isreal was asking the same question after returning to sheer devastation after the exile. So they ask God, “How have you loved us?”

God’s response is nothing short of miraculous. “Yet I have loved Jacob but Esau I have hated.” Twins brothers, both swindlers and cheats one, Jacob, by namesake. Yet God called one to be heir to the promises of Abraham. Not because of anything Jacob had done, but so that the plans of the Lord might be established and his promises kept.

It is not so much that God hated Esau to the core, but simply that he favored Jacob, and extended grace by covenant relationship. Rooted in this choice was the faithfulness of God to his people, and continual act of rightful justice to the people of Edom, descendants of Esau.

Israel should not be questioning God’s love based on their circumstances, which change, but instead based upon the character and promises of God which are unfailing. God demonstrated his love to them by patiently blessing them when they were far from deserving. While his punishment was doled to Edom, his grace upon grace was given to Israel.

Follower of Christ, you are one of His. Jesus said  in John 6:37 “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.” When circumstances, emotions, friends, family, and life lies to you and asks, “How has the Lord loved you?” Truster of Christ, respond, “He ahs chosen me by His grace and his goodness. He has loved me when I am not worthy to love. Therefore there is nothing I could do to make him love me more, and nothing I can do to make him love me less.”

That anchor will hold!

[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. 2001 (Mal 1:2–5). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.