Most people have heard of, and acknowledge, the unconditional love of God. For those of us who believe that God exists, we know that God created mankind for fellowship with him, that we are created in God’s image (on multiple levels), and that he loves everyone and desires that none would perish in hell, but that everyone would come to repentance (see 2 Peter 3:9).
So, we have heard that God is love, that God loves everyone and we take comfort in that – but here’s where most people stop in their scriptural pursuit of understanding. They believe that, if God loves them, and they are going through a difficult time, they can pray to God and then one of two things happens: 1) God intervenes and solves their problem and they go on their merry way, or 2) God doesn’t intervene with their problem, God is blamed for this, and those people then move further and further away from God into resentment against God. Does this sound familiar?
I’m here to tell you that God DOES INDEED LOVE EVERYONE, and his love is truly UNCONDITIONAL in that it doesn’t matter what you’ve done in the past – even murder – He still loves you and wants you to have eternal life after death. He loves you so much he sent his only begotten son, Jesus Christ, to come to earth in the flesh and to die for you as a sacrificial lamb so that YOU can be reconciled to God and have eternal life (rather than eternity in hell).
But it may surprise you to learn that God’s protection and provision appear to be CONDITIONAL – they require an on-going relationship with God. Note all the conditional statements in the scripture that follows:
| Psalm 91 Text | My Comments |
|---|---|
| 1 Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. | How do we “dwell in the shelter of the Most High”? How do you dwell in your home? You live there daily (spend lots of time there), you find rest there, you go from that place out into the world. If we live our lives from the standpoint that God’s shelter (his word, his presence) is our safe home base, he promises that we will find rest there. You make a willing choice to continue to dwell in your home and to go back there every day – make a willful choice to continually dwell with God. |
| 2 They say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust. 3 Surely he will save you from the fowler’s snare and from the deadly pestilence. 4 He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. | If we acknowledge that God is our refuge, that we trust in him, we are promised that: he will save us from those who want to entrap us, we will save us from deadly pestilence, he will hide us from our enemies. His faithfulness will be our protection (and it is unending). |
| 5 You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, 6 nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday. | If we place our trust in him, and we acknowledge that he is sovereign over everything (verse 2) – including over our fears, then we will have his peace and our fears will become less. |
| 7 A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. 8 You will only observe with your eyes and see the punishment of the wicked. | If we acknowledge that God is our refuge, that we trust in him (verse 2), God promises that we will not be punished like the wicked – it will not come near us. Note that the wicked – those who are disobedient to God – will be punished (more on that in another post). |
| 9 If you say, “The Lord is my refuge,” and you make the Most High your dwelling, 10 no harm will overtake you, no disaster will come near your tent. 11 For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; 12 they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. | If we acknowledge him and his authority in our lives, and if we continually make our dwelling place in him, he promises us that no harm will overtake us – note he doesn’t say that harm will never come to us, but that it won’t overtake us (it won’t be more than we can bear, with his help, because he is our shelter) – and he promises to send his angels to guard us in all that we do. |
| 13 You will tread on the lion and the cobra; you will trample the great lion and the serpent. | If we acknowledge him and his authority in our lives, and if we continually make our dwelling place in him (verse 9), he promises us the upper hand in dealing with Satan and his influence in our lives. |
| 14 Because they love me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue them; I will protect them, for they acknowledge my name. 15 They will call on me, and I will answer them; I will be with them in trouble, I will deliver them and honor them. 16 With long life I will satisfy them and show them my salvation. | If we acknowledge him and his authority in our lives with love in our hearts, he promises us: that he will rescue us, that he will protect us, that he will answer our prayers, that he will be with us in trouble, that he will deliver us and honor us, that he will bless us with a long life and show us his salvation (grace). |
But, what if we don’t acknowledge him, and if we don’t dwell/live with him – then we have no relationship with him and we are not assured of his protection and provision. Would a loving father bless and provide for a stranger over his own children? I think not. And so it is with God and his children.
John 1:11-13 says it this way, “He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God – children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.”
We are not all “children of God” simply because we exist as human beings. Yes, he loves us all as his creation, but God defines “children of God” as only those who receive his son, Jesus, and who believe in his name (believe that he IS the son of God and has the authority to redeem you from your sins). It is a free gift that is offered, but you must accept it and believe – THEN you are part of God’s family and can claim certain rights as a result of that familial relationship.
Psalm 91 holds great promises we can cling to if we are in proper relationship with God, but those promises are conditional upon your relationship with him. If you have not yet made the decision to accept Jesus into your heart and life, I would encourage you to do that today while you still have the chance. For further information, please check out the page on my website for the Prayer of Repetance.
Until next time, be blessed!
CHOOSE YOUR ETERNITY 