He Does not Leave Us as He Finds Us

May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ (2 Thessalonians 3:5).

There is no better or safer place to be than in the center of the love of God. As objects of his love we are immersed in his grace and mercy, saturated like a child’s stuffed toy left out in a soaking ran.

As Brennan Manning often said, we are loved by God as we are, not as we ought to be. We are like the prodigal who comes to the Father still covered with the filth and stench of the pigsty and is still welcomed, hugged, and kissed.

We are kissed with God’s love, grace, and mercy every day.

But there is something more in that verse. When Paul prays that the Lord will direct the Thessalonians’ hearts to the love of God he is not just praying that they will experience the love of God. He is praying that they will be changed by that love.

Yes, God loves us as we are, not as we ought to be. But he does not leave us as he finds us. He changes us so we that we start to become what we ought to be.

As we receive the love of God, and as we love God in return, our hearts begin to align with his heart, we begin to love the things that he loves. Loving what God loves is at the core of what it means to be sanctified, to grow in the Christian life.

Matthew Henry wrote, “We sustain a great deal of damage by misplacing our affections; it is our sin and our misery that we place our affections upon wrong objects. If God directs our love aright upon himself, the rest of the affections will thereby be rectified.”

When the Lord directs our hearts to the love of God, when we love what he loves, when our hearts are directed by his love, then more and more we become like him.

Lord, I pray that your love will do its work in my heart today, to direct my affections away from myself and the things of the world and to direct them to you and the things that you love.