Not To Believe
Originally scheduled for December 19
“The greatest sorrow and burden you can
lay on the Father, the greatest unkindness you can do to him is not
to believe that he loves you.” - John Owens.
Did it ever occur to you that you can lay sorrow and burden upon
God the Father? Indeed you can.
Consider first sorrow. If you will recall all that God has done
for you before you ever knew him, you would be able to see the
source of sorrow. He has sent his Son – his very life — to this
planet for the specific purpose of dying for you. That is the
greatest sacrifice one man can make for another. He did this out of
love, not out of compulsion. Can you imagine then the heartbreak
that comes when someone rejects so great a gift?
It is also a burden. Look at it this way: he has already done the
maximum that can be done. If you reject this, then out of love he
must look for something else to turn your heart towards him. This is
intrinsically extremely difficult.
Yes, this is the greatest unkindness that can be known. You know
this instinctively. Why else do you teach your children to say,
"thank you?" You don't want them to appear to be ungrateful. You
yourself have received unwanted gifts before, but you know that
civilized adults say thanks anyway. What if the gift is indeed very
precious?
You might think this has nothing to do with Communion. But it is
not so; taking communion lightly is just another form of this. If
this is nothing but empty ritual, or you're doing it because
everyone else is doing it, then you are telling God that you don't
believe he loves you. Consider well your thoughts; God knows them,
and knows the burdens they can bring.
