His Kindness Leads Me to Repentance

As I look back over my life, I can’t help be weep over the debris of broken relationships along the way.   Where is the redemption?  Where is the reconciliation? 

Yesterday at church I was struck like never before at the kindness of God.  In Romans 2, there’s a phrase that says, “God’s kindness leads to repentance”.  Why does that grip my heart so tightly?  Is it because of all the loss I’ve witnessed through the years? 

Perhaps.

Or perhaps it’s the loss, coupled with the overwhelming gratitude at the knowledge that God does not treat me as my sins deserve! 

His passion for me is not contingent on what I am able to accomplish.

His love for who I am is not based on if I am able to make Him happy today or not.

His desire to be my Friend does not waver in the face of my failures.

God, in His kindness, does not love me with an agenda!

What if… what if my desire to walk in relationship with others was not contingent on what they could accomplish?

What if… what if my love for others was not based on whether they could make me happy today – or not?

What if… what if my desire to be your friend did not waver in the face of your failures?

What if… what if I didn’t love with an agenda?

Romans 5:3-8

There's more to come: We continue to shout our praise even when we're hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next.

In alert expectancy such as this, we're never left feeling shortchanged.

Quite the contrary—we can't round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit!

Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn't, and doesn't, wait for us to get ready.

He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn't been so weak, we wouldn't have known what to do anyway.

We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice.

But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him.