{"id":17354,"date":"2014-01-27T01:10:56","date_gmt":"2014-01-27T06:10:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=17354"},"modified":"2014-01-27T01:16:05","modified_gmt":"2014-01-27T06:16:05","slug":"awesome-nature-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2014\/01\/27\/awesome-nature-god\/","title":{"rendered":"Awesome Nature of God"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SeekingHimLogo\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Your steadfast love, O Lord extends to the heavens
\nYour faithfulness to the clouds.
\nYour righteousness is like the mighty mountains,
\nYour judgements are like the great deep,
\nYou save humans and animals alike, O LORD.
\nHow precious is Your steadfast love, O GOD!
\nAll people may take refuge in the shadow of Your wings.
\nThey feast on the abundance of Your house
\nand You give them drink from the river of Your delights.
\nFor with You is the fountain of life; in Your light, we see light.
\nPsalms 36:5-9<\/p>\n

Awesome<\/strong> <\/em>is one of those words that has been so over used and inappropriately used that it\u2019s meaning has all but been lost. These verses from the heart of the 36th Psalm seem, at least to me, to provide a wonderful summary of the truly \u201cawesome\u201d Names of God. Gods steadfast love, faithfulness, righteousness, and judgments, are what awesome is all about.<\/p>\n

While our love is often too conditional and limited, God\u2019s love for us knows no bounds. Our love can be shallow, self – serving and unpredictable. God\u2019s love is steadfast. You can count on the consistency of God\u2019s love revealed in the beauty of creation, in the gift of God\u2019s love and preeminently in the life death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. There are no limits, no lines, no conditions. God loves us to the end…and beyond.<\/p>\n

When we profess our faith as followers of Christ we promise to \u201cturn from sin and renounce evil and its power in the world\u201d yet sometimes in spite of our most earnest efforts we fall back into the same old patterns. Or like the would-be followers of Jesus in Luke\u2019s gospel (Luke 9:59-62) we set conditions: \u201cWhen I have completed this task,” OR when I have more money, OR when I have more time, OR if it won\u2019t be too demanding.\u201d God\u2019s faithfulness to us is unwavering and sure. You can always rely on God.<\/p>\n

God\u2019s righteousness the psalmist tells us that it is like the mighty mountains \u2013 majestic, firm, immovable, eternal. God\u2019s ways are just and true, his truth unchanged and unchanging. To say that God is righteous<\/em> is to say that in God all things are as they should be so that God is the standard by which all things are measured \u2013 love, justice, peace, kindness, generosity\u2026.<\/p>\n

God\u2019s judgments, the psalmist tells us are like the great deep: unfathomable in their understanding and truth, neither shallow nor easily manipulated. Yet they are also tempered by mercy and filled with forgiveness.<\/p>\n

And, finally, the psalmist assures that in spite of the vastness of God\u2019s love, faithfulness, righteousness, and judgment, the truly awesome nature of God, He is never too big to care for us.<\/p>\n

Let us Pray<\/strong><\/em><\/span>: Our dear heavenly Father, we come to Thy throne of grace because You are the great God who never fails and whose love is unconditional. Teach us to love as Your own children in Jesus name we pray, Amen!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Your steadfast love, O Lord extends to the heavens Your faithfulness to the clouds. Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, Your judgements are like the great deep, You save humans and animals alike, O LORD. How precious is Your steadfast love, O GOD! All people may take refuge in the shadow of Your […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":122,"featured_media":13840,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3020],"tags":[3188,3173,1287,425,5221,3174],"class_list":["post-17354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-devotions","tag-ann-mwafulirwa","tag-daily-devotional","tag-gch","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-psalm-36","tag-seeking-him-devotional","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/SeekingHimLogo.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-4vU","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/122"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17354"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17354\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17357,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17354\/revisions\/17357"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}