Longing

"The Lord longs to be gracious to you..." Isaiah 30:18

What God showed me today seemed simplistic at first. Of course He longs to be gracious to me. He loves me. Didn't He "so love the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life?" That sounds a lot like GRACE to me.

But what caught my eye in this verse was the word "longs," and with that one word came a deeper glimpse into God's character. I've always believed that He loves me. I've always believed that He pours measure upon measure of grace upon all of us, an endless supply of a very precious commodity none of us deserves. But when was the last time you thought about God longing for you?

He sees how many times we mess up. He sees how many times we struggle with doubt. He sees all of our pain and sin and still longs to shower grace on us. And not only that, but to have compassion on us too (also in verse 18). What's the difference between being gracious and having compassion?

To me, God is gracious when He forgives my sin when I ask Him...again.
He has compassion when He wipes away the tears and bandages the self-afflicted wounds and whispers His love in my ear.

He could just show grace to us by forgiving us when we ask and leaving it at that. "Don't worry, my Son's blood covered that sin. You're off the hook. Catch you next time." Kind of like a friendly uncle that gets you out of trouble every now and then, but not someone you share an actual relationship with. No, God goes a step further and shows us compassion when we sin. He mixes His love with His grace until we realize that He is not just in the business of forgiving sins, He is also in the business of loving us, cherishing us, and having a relationship with us.

Why does this matter? To me, God seems a lot more personal when I see and feel evidence of His compassion in my life. His graciousness to forgive is awesome enough, but He goes that step further to show compassion in a special, unique way just for me.

If you stop and think about it, grace and compassion are two amazing things that we don't deserve without the blood of Jesus. And we love and serve a God who longs to do both in our lives, if only we ask Him. That's the key word: ASK. He knows the desire of our hearts, and He knows when we've sinned and need to ask for forgiveness, but so much of His moving in our hearts and lives depends on us speaking up in the first place! I'll close with verse 19 to really drive that last point home:

"He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when He hears it, He will answer you." Isaiah 30:19