John 11 - the love of God, continued

We are continuing in our studies from the eleventh chapter of John.....these are the verses we are focusing on this week:
 Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. ² (This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.) ³ So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.”
⁴ When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” ⁵ Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. ⁶ So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days,

We've been looking at the love of God, and also at how (and why) we should seek our satisfaction in Him.  Sometimes in our world we hear about opposites. Tears of joy. Tough love. The two concepts can appear to be polar opposites, or at least stark contrast from one another.
We see this in the Bible, too. Especially when we study our loving God.
Remember when Jesus is described in prophecy? He is called a lion. And He's called a lamb. How can that be? A lion is the king of all he surveys; he is regal and majestic; he has undisputed authority over other beings in his realm. The lamb? We see lambs as appealing but lowly creatures; they are very meek and follow their leader; they are at the bottom of the "pecking order" and get ordered about by the older sheep and the shepherd, too.
I believe that when we study our loving God, we are especially attracted to His mercy and His might; you might think these were two things would be mutually exclusive, but they're not! In Jesus, meekness comes together with courage, humility meets sovereignty, tenderness melds with toughness, and all power is included. He sacrificed Himself: He was deserving of all honor, yet He received all shame for us.
He understands us, and He disciplines us. He is infinitely worthy of our love.
And. He. Loves. Us.
He pulls things together that other people can't. I'm so glad that we have His Word, so that we can study Him and become more and more satisfied with His love.

Here is another thing we find, when we study our loving God. He is an untiringly happy Savior. He really is! Doesn't it lift our spirits to hear Him say things like, "I have spoken these things to you that my joy might be in you, and that your joy might be full."?  Isn't that uplifting?  His joy in us -- and He is so awesome and powerful -- His joy must be ever so much better than any other we can experience!
Here's another picture of our happy Savior: remember that wonderful parable in Matthew 25?  We are all gathered before Him, and the sheep and goats are being separated . . . the sheep draw near to Him and hear Him say, "Well done good and faithful servant. You were found faithful in little; you will be found faithful in much. Enter into the joy of your master."    Wow! What a fantastic picture of what heaven will be like: the joy of our master!
We serve a happy and triumphant savior, Jesus Christ. Let's not turn away from Him to ourselves. Let's not crave people making much of us. Let's make much of Him. Praise for us? No, praise for Him!
If we will spend time getting to know Him, He will satisfy us with His love.
Remember this quote from early in the week? I think it bears repeating:

God's love is His doing whatever needs to be done, at whatever cost, so that we will see and be satisfied with the glory of God in Jesus Christ.

Whatever God may do in our lives is whatever is necessary so that we can see His glory, and be satisfied with Him. What amazing love from the creator of all things!