Storms of Life: Part 2

We started a lesson last week about the hard times of life that come our way. These storms of life are real and all of us have been through them. For many of us life’s weather forecast seems to always be filled with dark and rainy days. Our human nature seems to always ask the question, “Why Me?” However, during our study of God’s nature we quickly see that His nature is not the same as ours. He is holy and just in whatever He sends or allows coming our way. This week as we look at God’s Nurture I pray that we all can find comfort from our Lord during the tornadic activity of life.

God’s Nurture

As we look further into the subject of God’s Nature you cannot help but find out about God’s Nurture.

* If you could name a second word that describes the nature of God, what would it be?

The answer is probably the answer you gave the first time I asked you this question last week:
He Is LOVE!

God is Holy in all His actions, no matter the outcome; however, He seems to wrap us up in His Love as He carries those actions out. He primarily demonstrates His love to us by the great two bookends of love:
Mercy and Grace.

Grace is a gift from God that we do not deserve. When we were lost, it was by God’s grace that saved us. After we are saved, it is God’s grace that sustains us. We as sinful people do not deserve this great love. However, God gave and still gives it freely, though a great price was paid on the cross. Today grace seems to find us when we need it the most. And grace is not just a thing; It is a person. That It is Jesus Himself, who is always with us in the midst of the Storm. No matter how tragic the crises is, He is always there blanketing us with a covering of comforting grace. That is God’s love demonstrated to us by His Grace.

Mercy is completely different. Mercy is not getting the punishment from God that we do deserve. We as sinful people deserve to be punished eternally, but God took that punishment that we deserve and put it on His Son at Calvary. Today mercy is something that is hard for us to understand and even harder to explain. We can understand grace because we can experience it. We can experience grace as we go through the storm, but when mercy came we never knew it. You see mercy stops the storm or reroutes it before it ever reaches our shores. And most of the time we will never see it coming or going. That is God’s love demonstrated to us by His Mercy.

God’s nature if first and for most Holiness, you could say perfection. Second, God’s nature is Love. So you could say God’s nature is Holy Love or a Perfect Love. If you are saved today this is the promise that we can learn from this study on God’s nature and nurture: God would have to go against His nature to give us less than His very best.

Settle this decisively in your mind.

God showed the world His nature when He gave us His only Son. God perfectly demonstrated His Holiness by the Life of Jesus, and compassionately revealed His Love when Jesus died on the cross for our sin, even while we were His enemies. You could say that the nature and nurture of God is personified in Jesus Christ.
Romans 5:5-11 “And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. 8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. 10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. 11 And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.

Next time you ask the Question “Why” think about His Nature and His Nurture, Then if you still wonder if God loves you, take a long look at the cross and the One who loved you enough to hang on it.

We will finish up this study with the third and finial lesson next week.

God Bless and Happy Hunting.

Posted by Mark Newell