Yesterday was the last day of our Adult Vacation Bible Study! Fifty-five people attended. I am honored and humbled God would allow me to teach in a foreign land.
For four days, in the heat of the day, we sat outside in a covered patio. We sang songs of God’s goodness. We heard testimonies of his faithfulness. We prayed for each other and saw God heal.
I am so in awe of God at this moment, I can barely write.
But yesterday, I taught that God is not angry with us. This was a concept some found difficult to believe. It was contrary to everything they were taught as a child.
I, too, grew up believing, “When you sin, God is ready to send sickness, hardships, and natural disasters your way to get you to repent.”
But let me share a few scripture with you to counteract the lie too many in the church believe.
When Isaiah prophesied of the coming of a Messiah, God promised this would be the result:
““To me this is like the days of Noah, when I swore that the waters of Noah would never again cover the earth. So now I have sworn not to be angry with you, never to rebuke you again. Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,” says the Lord, who has compassion on you.” Isaiah 54:9-10 NIV
John tells us:
“In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
I John 4:10 NKJV.
The word propitiation means to appease the wrath of God. Jesus once and for all satisfied God’s anger. All of His wrath was poured out on the cross.
Finally, Paul said, because of the atoning work of Christ, we are now presented before God as holy and blameless.
“just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love,” Ephesians 1:4 NKJV
Please meditate on these verses and let it soak into your spirit. GOD IS NOT ANGRY WITH YOU! He is for you and not against you!