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Devotional Classics, Soren Kierkegaard, Excerpts from Prayers of Kierkegaard
"Even that which we human beings call an insignificant trifle, and pass unmoved, the need of a sparrow, even this moves You; and what we often scarcely notice, a human sigh, this moves You, You who are unchangeable!"
This picture of the unchanging God usually makes me think of harsh decisions and reasons to fear Him. Certainly fear is part of my love, my adoration of the Living God. I do not love him merely as a friend or even merely as a father; I need to love him as my God. This calls for fear.
However, this unchanging God I serve and love is unchanging first and foremost in his love. So great is this unchangeableness that Kierkegaard writes about, the Apostle John even equates God with this love. "God is love." He is unbending in his continual compassion and depth of feeling for all that he has created.
Nichole Nordeman touches on this in her song, Small Enough:
Oh, Great God, be small enough to hear me now.
There were times when I was crying
from the dark of Daniel's den,
and I have asked you once or twice
if you would part the sea again,
but tonight I do not need a fiery pillar in the sky.
Just wanna know you're gonna hold me if I start to cry.
Oh, Great God, be small enough to hear me now.
What hurts me hurts God infinitely more. What grieves me saddens him with an intensity I cannot imagine. What brings me joy shakes the gates of heaven with his laughter. As C.S. Lewis writes, "We are half-hearted creatures. . . . We are far too easily pleased." My feelings are a faint reflection of his. Therefore, He is more intimate than I can imagine.
So I seek to be moved more. I think indifference may be more terrible than hatred. I believe that this love is all that counts in the end. I believe that it is thought and feeling, action and being. Only in love can I be truly kind and just. That is how God is.
Lots of things float around calling themselves love nowadays. This unchangeable compassion of God's has to be the true measure. The fruit of the Holy Spirit in my life is love, love that is joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle, and self-controlled. It's not a love I can say I give much, but it is one that I experience everyday, if I dare. It is being poured over all creation at all times and keeps it going. I need only open my mouth and it will be filled.
I use one of Kierkegaard's prayers today:
"Father in Heaven! You have loved us first, help us never to forget that You are love so that this sure conviction might triumph in our hearts over the seduction of the world, over the inquietude of the soul, over the anxiety for the future, over the fright of the past, over the distress of the moment. Amen."
I am remarkably changeable in my love and remarkably rigid in other areas of my life. Where love interferes with my desire for pleasure, power, or favor, I can change in a heartbeat. My own money concerns can easily make me cold and callous toward those in need. I am rather limp at times when it comes to loving. Have mercy on me, Lord! Let my attentiveness to your love reveal my hard-heartedness and make my love more unbending.
from the dark of Daniel's den,
and I have asked you once or twice
if you would part the sea again,
but tonight I do not need a fiery pillar in the sky.
Just wanna know you're gonna hold me if I start to cry.
Oh, Great God, be small enough to hear me now.
What hurts me hurts God infinitely more. What grieves me saddens him with an intensity I cannot imagine. What brings me joy shakes the gates of heaven with his laughter. As C.S. Lewis writes, "We are half-hearted creatures. . . . We are far too easily pleased." My feelings are a faint reflection of his. Therefore, He is more intimate than I can imagine.
So I seek to be moved more. I think indifference may be more terrible than hatred. I believe that this love is all that counts in the end. I believe that it is thought and feeling, action and being. Only in love can I be truly kind and just. That is how God is.
Lots of things float around calling themselves love nowadays. This unchangeable compassion of God's has to be the true measure. The fruit of the Holy Spirit in my life is love, love that is joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle, and self-controlled. It's not a love I can say I give much, but it is one that I experience everyday, if I dare. It is being poured over all creation at all times and keeps it going. I need only open my mouth and it will be filled.
I use one of Kierkegaard's prayers today:
"Father in Heaven! You have loved us first, help us never to forget that You are love so that this sure conviction might triumph in our hearts over the seduction of the world, over the inquietude of the soul, over the anxiety for the future, over the fright of the past, over the distress of the moment. Amen."
I am remarkably changeable in my love and remarkably rigid in other areas of my life. Where love interferes with my desire for pleasure, power, or favor, I can change in a heartbeat. My own money concerns can easily make me cold and callous toward those in need. I am rather limp at times when it comes to loving. Have mercy on me, Lord! Let my attentiveness to your love reveal my hard-heartedness and make my love more unbending.
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