07
God Is Always Smiling At Us
Richard Waialeale2 Corinthians 7:8-10 (NIV)
8 Even if I caused you sorrow by my letter, I do not regret it. Though I did regret it--I see that my letter hurt you, but only for a little while--
9 yet now I am happy, not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance. For you became sorrowful as God intended and so were not harmed in any way by us.
10 Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.
Paul says that a harsh letter he sent may have first appeared in severe sorrow, but in the end it cause the people to repent.
Sometimes when I send an email or a text, people misunderstand the correction and sternness behind the email even though I meant it in love.
You need to read any email that you ever get from me, imagining that I was smiling when I sent it to you.
When you read my emails, even if I’m correcting you, I want you picturing me with a smile on my face.
Because that’s how I feel about you.
I wonder how much our lives would change that if we read God’s Word. We read it like He’s smiling when He said it.
I realize there’s some tough stuff in the Bible and it’s not all happy and Rosie.
But what if we believe that even the hard things that God says to us and takes us through, His countenance looked upon us with favor.
And even if something came against us, God is for us.
Many of us need a new way of seeing the way God sees us.
We need to believe that He loves us and His plans for us is to do good for us.
I know that because He proved it on a Cross.
God sent His Son to die for us. To convince me that He died for me and that He loves me that much.
He says, I intend good things for your life.
Lord thank you for loving me enough to correct me in love. May I do the same in my ministry. To communicate to those around me that everything I do is in love and with a smile on my face. Because I love them. Amen.
