How have you loved me?

I have loved you, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother? saith the LORD: yet I loved Jacob,  - Malachi 1.2

Malachi was the last prophet we hear from before the coming of John the Baptist. As we leave the Old Testament we see that Israel is still in bad shape. She still has sin she needs to deal with. She is still not right with God. Malachi is a litany of the problems that needed to be dealt with.

At the very start God says ‘I have loved you.’ Fair enough. But what do the people say? ‘How have You loved us?’

What a terrible thing to say, isn’t it? God says ‘I love you’ and His people say ‘how?’

When you put it in black and white it seems so clear. But I think there is a way that a lot of us do the same thing in our everyday lives and actions. We know that God is love. We know He loves us. We know that He is good. He tells us that He loves us and that we should trust Him in every situation.

But then, what happens when that is put to the test. Do we act like He loves us or do we panic and despair? I say God loves me, but do I practice it? If He loves me and He is good and He cares and He is all powerful isn’t He able to deal with whatever I face?

Of course He is. It is a slap in the face of God when I doubt His love by not trusting Him to care for me.