1 Verse that showed me the heart of God: He's better than you thought
For many years, I saw God's heart in a way that was very fixed. And in this fixed image of God, I was blinded to His heart. In effect, I made God devoid of any and all emotion. And myself? A mere project in need of fixing.
Originally Posted: 1/16/18
Updated: 1/16/20
"If that had not been enough, I would have given you much, much more."
For many years, I saw God's heart in a way that was very fixed.
The image was of One who desired for me to be Holy...and as a result, turned away upon seeing my blemishes.
One who was in constant search for me to be conformed to the image of Christ… and ONLY sought me in order to relentlessly do everything in His power to make sure this work (me) was finished upon Christ’s return.
One who was only interested in my perfection and not in my shortcomings.
But in this fixed image of God, I was blinded to His heart. In effect, I made God devoid of any and all emotion. And myself? A mere project in need of fixing.
But this imagery began to become challenged when coming across certain verses in the Bible over the years.
One example includes the following passage (SN: Here, the Lord speaks to King David, after King David’s most recent sin of raping another man’s wife. King David then killed the wife’s husband. I know. It’s quite a bit.):
7 Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. 8 I gave your master’s house to you, and your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you all Israel and Judah.
And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more.
9 Why did you despise the word of the Lord by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. 10 Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.
2 Samuel 12:7-10
In His exchange with David, the Lord stated all of the ways in which He, the Lord, had been faithful to David. After reminding David of these things, instead of only telling David the consequences that were to come due to his sin—rightfully deserved—the Lord leaves me struck by these words:
If that had not been enough, I would have given you much, much more.
Have you ever committed a sin and then expected the next reigning blow from the Lord? You confess, you repent, and when something bad happens—state to yourself, “Well, I deserve it. The Lord is angry with me.” These thoughts can sometimes resound in one’s mind when a person doesn’t know the heart of their true Father.
The moment you truly look into the Father’s eyes in this passage, you don’t see anger—but instead, you see a glimpse of A Father’s hurt and outstretched hands.The Lord simply wanted David to turn to Him. David had no reason to steal from others.
“If that had not been enough, David...I would have given you much, much more.”
If the houses had not been enough; if David’s wives had not been enough; if territorial kingdoms had not been enough etc.—the Lord doesn’t say “I will just remove them and see how you fare.” But instead, the Lord says, “If that had not been enough, I would have given you much, much more.”
My heart just drops.
The Lord simply wanted David to come to Him.
We often view the Lord’s discipline, especially in the Old Testament, and cringe. We easily succumb to thinking that this God is terrifying, full of wrath, and unforgiving. It’s easy to go to the next set of verses and linger over the consequences that the Lord pronounced over David due to his sin. But before doing so…take pause at this one verse that God tells David right beforehand.
“If that had not been enough...I would have given you much, much more.”
Be challenged today by the Father’s heart. I dare you to take your eyes off of yourself and peer into His heart. Yes, our sins reap consequences. But more than viewing the damages caused by our own sinfulness, consider the feelings of the One most affected—Your beloved Lord.
He's not devoid of feeling. He's not unaffected by your actions. He's NOT more concerned about a mission rather than a relationship. See His heart...just this once.
You're not a project.
You're not looked upon through eyes of disgust.
You're loved.
And because You're loved, He will chase after you. He will discipline you. He will desire for you to be holy...because He is holy.
Why? Because He desires the most to be intimate with you.
Take a moment to meditate on the words that the Father shared with David, before sharing with him the punishment to come.
"If that was not enough (insert your name), I would have given you much, much more."
PonderedThought: What has the Lord given you that you’re saying “isn’t enough” through your actions recently?
Is it His peace? His Protection? His Guidance? His Presence? His current Provision? Your Family?
Hear Him now saying….
“If that had not been enough (insert name)...I would have given you much more.”
Instead of running to others/things, He simply wants you to come to Him.
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It's Not About You
Have you ever found yourself in prayer, constantly asking/praying in a rhythmic pattern of “Lord help me to....and I pray that You would...and help me to...and help me to...and help me to...and help me to?”
Have you ever found yourself in prayer, constantly asking/praying in a rhythmic pattern of “Lord help me to....and I pray that You would...and help me to...and help me to...and help me to...and help me to?”
Seeing how God desires our ultimate dependency on Him, and then seeing how the Lord is limitless in what He can do, I find myself in this pattern of “I pray that You would...and help me to…” quite often. And...there’s nothing wrong with that.
But what strikes me about King Hezekiah, when he says a particular prayer in 2 Kings 19, is not his request. Instead, it's his reasoning behind his request that gives me pause. After being threatened by death to himself and to his kingdom, Hezekiah ends his prayer to God by saying, “Save us...that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, O Lord, are God alone.”
Do you see it? Let’s back up. King Hezekiah just received word from another kingdom, the Assyrians, that it was going to destroy the Israelites. In fact, Hezekiah received multiple messages from the Assyrians stating that Hezekiah’s kingdom would fall to ruins and that Hezekiah’s God wouldn’t be able to protect the Israelites, God's chosen people. In response, King Hezekiah ran to the Lord. Analyzing his prayer, you can see that Hezekiah does a couple of noteworthy things:
Instead of looking to his own devices, King Hezekiah humbles himself and first acknowledges who the Lord is.
15 Hezekiah prayed before the LORD and said, “O LORD, the God of Israel, who are enthroned above the cherubim, You are the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.
How important it is to explicitly acknowledge who the Lord is in prayer, especially in times of trouble/doubt. Before Hezekiah makes his request known to God, Hezekiah not only proclaims who the Lord is, but he also reminds himself just who he speaks to. I’m slowly learning the value of actively acknowledging who my heavenly Father is while I speak to him. Personally, this has helped me to pray further in faith when I remind myself who God is. He is not just another man. I’m literally speaking to the Creator of the entire Universe (ponder that for a second!).
2. King Hezekiah then presents this life-threatening problem in a way that lays the burden of his request at the feet of God rather than hesitantly at his own. This shows true trust and dependency.
16 Incline your ear, O Lord, and hear; open your eyes, O Lord, and see; and hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God. 17 Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands 18 and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone. Therefore they were destroyed.
King Hezekiah recognizes that this battle with the Assyrians is really not against him. It's against God. How many times do we find ourself in a situation in which we take the battle personally? The Lord warns us in John 15:18, “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first." He also warns us in Ephesians 6 that we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but we wrestle against principalities, powers, the rulers of the darkness of this age, and spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. It's pivotal to understand just who our battles are against. It's really not about you.
3. Lastly, King Hezekiah explicitly states the reasoning behind his request. He acknowledges that it's not about him!
19 “Now, O LORD our God, I pray, deliver us from his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, O LORD, are God.”
And this is where I take great pause! How often do we pray with this motivation? I mean honestly. It’s so easy for me to pray “help me to...” without any motivation for the Lord to receive glory, for His kingdom to progress here on Earth, or for others to come to know Christ. Often I’m just in need and I just send up a prayer. Often, I stop thinking about the Lord’s agenda and stop short-sighted by my own selfishness.
But what I’m learning is that when I pray with the latter motivation, I subtly take myself off my own pedestal and place God in His rightful place. This guards me from bitterness or anger when I don’t see such a prayer answered, because it reminds me that I was never/should never be the center for why a prayer is answered in the first place. Rather, it reminds me that at the end of the day, Jesus really is the center of it all. (i.e. Colossians 1:16 "16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him.")
PonderedThought: If God isn’t the center of your prayer, check your motivation as to why you are praying in the first place.
Is His will greater than your own want/desire?
Inspired Passages:
James 4: 2-3 “You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.”
Joshua 7:7-9 "Joshua said, “Alas, O Lord God, why did You ever bring this people over the Jordan, only to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us? If only we had been willing to dwell beyond the Jordan! 8 O Lord, what can I say since Israel has turned their back before their enemies?9 For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear of it, and they will surround us and cut off our name from the earth. And what will You do for Your great name?”
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Is God only found on certain parts of Earth? (I thought I knew the answer)
However, when it came down to a dwindling savings account, a lack of call backs from potential employers, was God a God of the real world with harsher consequence?
Because the Arameans have said, “Yahweh is a god of the mountains and not a god of the valleys,” I will hand over all this great army to you. Then you will know that I am the Lord. 1 Kings 20:28
I am in constant amnesia of what the Lord is capable of doing, as I enter into different seasons of life in which the season yields itself to unfamiliar territory. As a result, anxiousness soon arises. The Arameans fought a battle in the mountains against the Lord’s people, the Israelites, and saw how Yahweh moved on the behalf of His people. The Arameans quickly reasoned that God’s ability was confined to a particular region and area—the mountains. Therefore they assumed that if the battle against the Israelites took place in the valley, the Israelites would cease to win. No, like they actually believed this.
When I initially read this passage, I quietly chuckled to myself, knowing all too well that the Lord is not confined to the basis of a geographical region. Yet, the first time I chuckled, the Holy Spirit quickly revealed to me how often I, a believer, attain the same thinking as the Arameans did. What do I mean by this?
If I haven’t seen the Lord move within my life within a particular area or challenge, I forget that He too has control and power in that area. It’s as if the Lord is constantly whispering to me,
“I too am the God of the valley, Jessica.”
Looking back, I recall these constant whispers when, for instance, I desperately ran to my mama when my first pregnancy symptom arose, or to my girlfriend when the first challenge in marriage seemed insurmountable, or to my fiction books when I wanted to escape reality, or to some blogs when I wanted to read how others dealt with a particular struggle, or to my own wisdom when the Lord wasn’t answering my prayers quickly enough. And though these things aren’t wrong, in them of themselves, why is it my first inkling is to run to others before I turn to the Lord?
My motivation? What I truly believe deep down is, “I believe you to be God—but just not in this area. I’ll consult You when all my other options are exhausted.”
You see, it’s easier for me to believe in God for salvation from eternal damnation, but not from certain external circumstances or internal struggles. I believe that God can prove powerful in my friend’s life, but not in all areas of my own. I believe that He can set the captives free in the bible, but not those closest to me (of whom I’ve been interceding on behalf for for years.) In all these ways, I sublty state,
“Lord, you are the God of the mountains...but maybe not of the valleys.”
How hurtful.
And yet, in response, God graciously proves me wrong every...single...time.
When the lemon, the ginger, the crackers, and the carbonated drinks wouldn’t alleviate my morning sickness, I prayed and the Lord showed me exactly what to eat each morning—greatly reducing my nausea.
When I contracted a sinus infection that persisted for 3 weeks on end without relief, and the docs suggestions weren’t working, I finally prayed and the Lord told me to stop eating chicken for a day. Guess what? My sinus congestion actually cleared up by the next morning (I can't make these things up).
When I began to feel anxious at work and all my best efforts of breathing exercises and Facebook distraction couldn’t take off the edge, I finally prayed and the Lord told me to read the Word. He LITERALLY granted me His peace that surpasseth all understanding.
The moment I confine the Lord into certain areas of my life by making Him into a God of the _____ or a God of the ______, I forget that He is simply Lord. He owns it all. He knows it all. Because...He created it all.
PonderedThought: The next time you run to your “go to,” first ask yourself,
