Devotionals by Dr. M. Craig Barnes
The Lord takes pleasure in his people. --
It is amazing how much of the religious agenda is based on the assumption that God is really angry. Religious leaders devote themselves to debates over how we can appease this anger and what we must do, or stop doing, to prevent God from being mad at us forever. But this depicts God as a fragile, emotionally vulnerable victim who is not in control of his own feelings. And it reduces our spirituality to a codependent obsession with doing whatever it takes to make the angry God happy again.
By contrast, if we start with the biblical claim that God is pleased with us, and even loves us, it changes everything about our relationship with him. For one, this means God's anger over our sins is appeased by his pleasure in us and not by our acts of contrition. That doesn't mean that we shouldn't be contrite for our sins, but it does mean that our sorrow is created by the discovery that in sin we have turned from the God who, in Christ, was dying to love us.
Secondly, when the Bible claims "the Lord takes pleasure in his people," it means that the love we receive from God is based on his grace and not our worthiness. So the loving relationship is secure even when we do not act like a people who are in love with God. Thirdly, it means that to be authentically religious is to live our lives with freedom and gratitude, which is what any loving father most wants his children to do.
-- Craig Barnes