“Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgements and unfathomable His ways!” Romans 11.33, NASB

Most of the time when we think of ‘love’ . . . we like to think of the soft, touchy-feely kinda of love ~ well, at least I do! And that is all good and fine because we like the ‘be really really nice to me’ . . kinda love.

But there is another kind of ‘love’ and it’s sometimes called ‘tough love’.  Have you ever heard of it?  It’s the kind of love that says, ‘I know what you need and you may not like it, but I’m going to give you what you need NOT what you want . . . because I love you that much!’  Does that make sense?

I’d like to propose that we call this ~ Wise Love.

Scripture tells us in numerous places about the wisdom of God.  But as we see in Romans 11, verse 33, that the wisdom of God runs deep.  We can not quite even comprehend it. It’s unsearchable . . . unfathomable.

Jerry Bridges says that wisdom can commonly be defined like this ~ “a good judgement or the ability to develop the best course of action or the best response to a given situation”.  He quotes an old theologian named, J.L. Dagg that says the wisdom of God, “is infinitely wise, because He selects the best possible end of action . . He adopts the best possible means for the accomplishment of the end which He has in view.”  (Trusting God, pg. 124)

What is the end that God has in His view? Well, one ~ His Glory. He shares that with no one. Second, and what He does share, is our conformity to the image of His Son.

So that means that ~ sometimes He gives us what we NEED and not what we WANT.  And THAT means that ~  He knows what circumstances and situations need to occur in our lives to develop and grow us into the image of His Son. And sometimes these circumstances and situations are not all ‘nice-nicey‘ . . . they can be very ‘yucky-yucky‘ . . and frankly, many times ~ I’m not too fond of them.

But God is so wise that He is far less concerned about my happiness (not that He doesn’t want that) but He is much, much more concerned about my holiness. (Can you say ‘ouch!’ with me?)

God’s wise love for us means that He always knows what is best for us and He knows the exact way to bring it about. He knows what I need, how I need it, when I need it . . . and how long it will take me to figure out that He is infinitely wise and infinitely loving!

While I may not be fond of my present circumstance, I am fond of God. And I do want to look like Him. So, I must choose to say, “God, I do not understand. But I do know You love me. And I do know that You are wise. So, accomplish what You want in my life . . even if it involves yucky stuff.”

Can you say that . . . in this day . . . in your present circumstances? If not, take some time to meditate on Romans 11, verse 33.

Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge . . . and love . . . . of God!