Cheating on God

For the past two weekends, I've had the joy of co- leading small groups for different Disciple Now's and it's just really so awesome how much God can open your eyes over two short weekends. One thing that I learned that really struck me is how faithful and unrelenting our God is and how unfaithful and corrupted we are.

Now, this sounds like nothing new, but when it initially entered my mind, it was in a completely different way that seemed so profound to me. All throughout the Bible, Christ refers to believers as his bride; for example, in Isaiah 62:5, it says "For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your sons marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God over you." That being said, that we are the bride of Christ, we should therefore, remain completely and totally faithful to him. This too, sounds like nothing new, but let me elaborate. 

When I go into a relationship with a boy, I go in with the thought that we will be totally faithful to each other and never cheat. But are we treating our relationship with God-- which is far more important-- with the same commitment? I know that the answer for me is a big, fat NO.  I cheat on God daily by sinning- no matter what the sin may be.

What really gets me is that He, with His unrelenting love, remains ever faithful. And here's the big punch in the gut: He takes so much joy in us regardless of our meaningless folly. Ouch. I know that I wouldn't stay with someone who I knew was deliberately cheating on me with multiple people, so why why does God stay with us? I mean, really. ". . . as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God over you." That just makes me speechless. 

This may seem like nothing new to you, but to me, it completely changed to severity of sin. We hear "unfaithful" but it doesn't seem to carry the negativity that "cheating" does. I mean, we can cheat on tests, on significant others, on essentially anything; and we do it to God. Right now, I'm imagining how it would feel to be cheated on once and then multiplying that and picturing how that makes God feel and wow. How could I do that so deliberately to the one who so lovingly created me?

From this point on, I don't know if I'll ever view sin the same. It is my prayer that this change will help me to be humbled and be appreciative of the grace he so lavishes on me, even though I'm unfaithful and I cheat and don't deserve his love. I'm so in awe of my maker.