God’s loving thought

Jesus upholds all things by the word of his power, and behind that word is God’s loving thought. God loves everything he creates and he keeps everything by his loving thought. God’s creation is not just the display of a mechanical adaptation of creatures in a race for survival. He creates, loves, and keeps.
He compares us to his natural creation to remind us that everywhere we look we see his love at work.

Luke 12 :6 “Are not five sparrows sold for two copper coins? And not one of them is forgotten before God (epilanthenomai - out of the mindfulness of God). But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be anxious; of how much more value are you than the sparrows.
We are part of the creative, loving, keeping, power of God’s loving thought about us. Being mindful of God’s loving mindfulness for all things can lift us up out of ourselves into God’s heart for other people. The sparrow and the lilies of the field are not able to be mindful of being kept by God’s loving thought toward them, but we are as human beings, sharing together in this changing, growing, living, dying, suffering, recovering, river of God’s created life. And even as we love to get alone one on one with God and to live in that intimacy, we don’t just leap over this river that we belong in together. The river is always waiting for us. It is his river, taking us beyond self and individualism, into the lives of others.

Philippians 2:1 …fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.
We all have different gifts and skills and experience. There is something that someone else does or has done better than we have, and we can honour that in our heart and give place to it. We also give place to what other people are suffering.
Galatians 6:2 Bear one another's burdens (weighed down), fulfilling the law of Christ. If anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. Let each one test his own work, and his rejoicing will be in himself and not in comparing with his neighbor. For each has to bear his own burden (responsibility)
I continually observe this responsibility in action as God’s people glorify him in his loving thought to them in their suffering. That is where I see people at their best.
Speaking about the many members in the one Body Paul says:
1Corinthians 12:26. If one member suffers we all suffer and if one is honoured we all rejoice.

Accepting God’s loving thought for us as we go through suffering and being supported by the prayers of others glorifies God and strengthens us to do the same for others. Our prayer is God’s magnifying glass that magnifies him in our hearts, both in the one praying and in the one prayed for, magnifying our faith. So suffering, whether in depression, sickness, loss, hard circumstances etc, is not a punishment or a strange and alien thing that makes us into a victim of life. It is a mystery that hides grace, the power of Holy Spirit at work magnifying God who both changes things and changes us.

We share in God’s loving thought for one another in our communion together today.
Ephesians 4:1 … I earnestly appeal to you that you now live lives that are appropriate to God’s invitation to be together in God and with God 2. Live out this new life with humility and gentleness, accepting others right where they are, and seeing them through his heart of love for them. 3. Let the oneness that each of you shares with God be something that you share in with one another...