Entering Into God’s Presence

Knowing God Through His Nature & Character

God Feels (A Personal Attribute of God’s Nature)

To Study and Ponder:

• Emotions are the capacity to react to the experiences of life. Without emotions, our
  experience of life would be dry, cold, monotonous, arid, mechanical. We experience emotions because God does. Could we ever believe that we have capacities that God does not have? No! If we have the capacity to feel, to react, to experience life, it is because God also has these feelings and has made us “in his own image” (Gen 1:26-27) giving us the capacity to respond to life’s circumstances in a way similar to him. It is precisely because God experiences emotions, that we are able to share in them with him emotions: his joy, his delight, his contentment.

• The Bible speaks of God experiencing joy, delight, contentment. Consider the following passages: “the LORD delights in his people” Psa 149:4; God says, “I will rejoice over Jerusalem” Isa 65:19; “God ... will take delight in you with gladness” Zep 3:17 (Also Ps.18:19; 147:10-11; Is.62:4-5)

• Similarly, Jesus speaks of his “joy” when he prays to the Father (John 17:13). Jesus, who knew the Father perfectly when describing God in the parables spoke of God’s emotional responses to his creatures. Note the language Jesus employs in the parable of the talents (Mat 25:21,23) Faithful stewardship makes God joyful: rejoice that you brought joy to the heart of God! Look also at how Jesus describes God’s reactions in the stories of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son (Luke 15:5-6,9-10,22-23,31-32). The whole point of this series of three parables is that God rejoices and contagiously celebrates when a sinner repents! God gets happy when you turn to him! If you believe Jesus’ words, then you understand that the day you returned to God, he called a holiday in heaven and threw a party! This is not a truth merely to be analyzed, it is to be experienced. We are exhorted: “enter into the joy of your master...”

• But God not only experiences joy and delight. He is “acquainted with deepest grief” (Isa 53:3). Reflect upon the tragic descriptions of God’s experience contained in the following passages: “The LORD observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil. So the LORD was sorry he had ever made them and put them on the earth. It broke his heart” (Gen 6:5-6). The Hebrew word used here is very graphic. It is a word that speaks of the intense pain that occurs when the heart stops, when one experiences a cardiac arrest! How can we begin to comprehend what God experiences when he looks upon sin and its consequences? Imagine what it might have felt like to God when he spoke to Samuel at the time Israel requested to be led by a king. “Do everything they say to you,” the LORD replied, “for it is me they are rejecting, not you. They don’t want me to be their king any longer” (1Sa 8:7). Is there any anguish greater than that occasioned by the pain of rejection? The psalmist reflects, “Oh, how often they rebelled against him in the wilderness and grieved his heart in that dry wasteland” (Psa 78:40). Not once or twice, but countless times, and yet God persisted in loving them. God – like a rejected and scorned lover – asks with painful bewilderment, “What more could I have done for my vineyard that I have not already done?” (Isa 5:4). “What did your ancestors find wrong with me that led them to stray so far from me?” (Jer 2:5). Though his people have sinned without even thinking how their sin had impacted God, he takes heart that one day that will change. “They will recognize how hurt I am by their unfaithful hearts and lustful eyes that long for their idols” (Eze 6:9). And so, even though he is hurt by his people, he continues to pursue them with his unquenchable love. What an amazing God this is!

• Over 100 times in the OT God is described as having compassion, either on a person, a group of people, or on a nation. The Hebrew words mean to love deeply, have mercy, be compassionate, have tender affection (Online Bible):- Ex.34:6; Ne 9:28b; Ps 103:13; 116:5

• Jesus also feels compassion for the crowds (Mt. 9:36;14:14), for those who needed healing (Matt.20:29-34;Mark 1:40-41), and deep sorrow, weeping over Jerusalem (Luke 19:41).

• The extraordinary point of the above passages is the realization that our finite lives affect the infinite emotions of God! We can cause God so much joy that he breaks out singing (Zep 3:17) and we are capable of producing in him such infinite grief that it feels like his heart is going to go into cardiac arrest (Gen 6:6). Oftentimes we ponder on how sin (ours or that of others) makes us feel. Have we lived our lives consciously aware of how it makes God feel? He is a real person – an infinite person – who experiences real emotions in all of his relationships. Let us consider how we can live this day to bring joy to his heart.

• We are also to share in and express to others the emotions of God: joy–1Peter 1:8-9, Phil.4:4; Jn15:11; compassion– Col 3:12; comfort–2Cor.1:3-5

Meditation/Memory:

Lower Grades: The Lord is like a father to his children, tender and compassionate to those who fear him. Psalm 103:13  (NLT)

Jesus saw the huge crowd as he stepped from the boat, and he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. Mark 6:34 (NLT)

Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.  1 Thessalonians 5:16-18  (NLT)

Middle Grades: “Yahweh! The Lord! The God of compassion and mercy! I am slow to anger and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness. Exodus 34:6 (NLT)

Jesus saw the huge crowd as he stepped from the boat, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick.  Matthew 14:14 (NLT)

For the Lord delights in his people; he crowns the humble with victory. Let the faithful rejoice that he honors them. Let them sing for joy as they lie on their beds. Psalm 149:4-5 (NLT)

Upper Grades: For the Lord your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs. Zephaniah 3:17 (NLT)

A man with leprosy came and knelt in front of Jesus, begging to be healed. “If you are willing, you can heal me and make me clean,” he said. Moved with compassion, Jesus reached out and touched him. “I am willing,” he said. “Be healed!”  Mark 1:40-41 (NLT)

When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow! John 15:10-11 (NLT)