​10 With my whole heart I seek you;

let me not wander from your commandments!

11 I have laid up your word in my heart,

that I might not sin against you. 

…

Your testimonies are my delight,

they are my counselors.  

…

30 I have chosen the way of faithfulness,

I set your ordinances before me.

31 I cling to your testimonies, O Lord;

let me not be put to shame!

32 I will run in the way of your commandments

when you enlarge my understanding!  

33 Teach me, O Lord, the way of your statutes;

and I will keep it to the end.

34 Give me understanding, that I may keep your law

and observe it with my whole heart.

35 Lead me in the path of your commandments,

for I delight in it.

36 Incline my heart to your testimonies,

and not to gain!

37 Turn my eyes from looking at vanities;

and give me life in your ways.

38 Confirm to your servant your promise,

which is for those who fear you.

39 Turn away the reproach which I dread;

for your ordinances are good.

40 Behold, I long for your precepts;

in your righteousness give me life!

41 Let your mercy come to me, O Lord,

your salvation according to your promise; 

…

57 The Lord is my portion;

I promise to keep your words.

58 I entreat your favor with all my heart;

be gracious to me according to your promise.

59 When I think of your ways,

I turn my feet to your testimonies;

60 I hasten and do not delay

to keep your commandments.

61 Though the cords of the wicked ensnare me,

I do not forget your law.

62 At midnight I rise to praise you,

because of your righteous ordinances.

63 I am a companion of all who fear you,

of those who keep your precepts.

64 The earth, O Lord, is full of your steadfast love;

teach me your statutes! 

…

92 If your law had not been my delight,

I should have perished in my affliction.

93 I will never forget your precepts;

for by them you have given me life.

94 I am yours, save me;

for I have sought your precepts.  

…

131 With open mouth I pant,

because I long for your commandments.

132 Turn to me and be gracious to me,

as you always do toward those who love your name.

133 Keep steady my steps according to your promise,

and let no iniquity get dominion over me.

134 Redeem me from man’s oppression,

that I may keep your precepts.

135 Make your face shine upon your servant,

and teach me your statutes.

136 My eyes shed streams of tears,

because men do not keep your law.

137 You are righteous, O Lord,

and right are your judgments.

138 You have appointed your testimonies in righteousness

and in all faithfulness.

139 My zeal consumes me,

because my foes forget your words.

140 Your promise is well tried,

and your servant loves it. 

…

145 With my whole heart I cry; answer me, O Lord!

I will keep your statutes.

146 I cry to you; save me,

that I may observe your testimonies.

147 I rise before dawn and cry for help;

I hope in your words.

148 My eyes are awake before the watches of the night,

that I may meditate upon your promise.

149 Hear my voice in your steadfast love;

O Lord, in your justice preserve my life.  

…

162 I rejoice at your word

like one who finds great spoil.

163 I hate and abhor falsehood,

but I love your law.

164 Seven times a day I praise you

for your righteous ordinances.

165 Great peace have those who love your law;

nothing can make them stumble.

166 I hope for your salvation, O Lord,

and I do your commandments.

167 My soul keeps your testimonies;

I love them exceedingly.

168 I keep your precepts and testimonies,

for all my ways are before you.

169 Let my cry come before you, O Lord;

give me understanding according to your word!

170 Let my supplication come before you;

deliver me according to your word.

171 My lips will pour forth praise

that you teach me your statutes.

172 My tongue will sing of your word,

for all your commandments are right.

173 Let your hand be ready to help me,

for I have chosen your precepts.

174 I long for your salvation, O Lord,

and your law is my delight.

175 Let my soul live, that I may praise you,

and let your ordinances help me.  

(Psalm 119 selected verses, RSV2CE)

​Let us be men of the Spirit, let us be a temple consecrated to God. As far as we can, let us devote ourselves to living in the fear of God, and let us strive to keep his commandments so that his ordinances become our delight. When the Lord judges the world he will have no favourites: each will receive according to his deeds. If he is good then his righteousness will lead him forward; if he is evil then the reward of iniquity will be in front of him. Let us never complacently think of ourselves as ‘called’, let us never doze in our sinfulness, or the Prince of Evil may gain power over us and thrust us out from the Kingdom of the Lord. And consider this also, my brethren, you see what great signs and wonders were wrought in Israel and yet in the end they were finally abandoned – let us be very careful not to be among those of whom it was written that many are called but few are chosen.

​Does God love me when I am following… and hate me when I am not?

God loves you absolutely, but He cannot approve sin—so when you are not following, His response is not “He hates you,” but “He opposes the evil and calls you back,” because He wills your salvation. 

Practical answer to your exact question

So to your question—“Does God love me when I am following… and hate me when I am not?”

• God loves you when you follow.
• God still loves you when you don’t follow. He does not become “hating” in Himself.
• What changes when you sin is that God’s will for your good confronts you with truth, correction, and (if rejected) justice—which Scripture can describe with “hate” language because it is “hatred of evil” or “willed punishment,” not a change from love to cruelty. 1

God does not withdraw love the way you describe; instead, your response to grace determines whether you are aligned with that love.

​READ/REFLECT

Malachi 

“I have loved you,” says the Lord. But you say, “How have you loved us?” “Is not Esau Jacob’s brother?” says the Lord. “Yet I have loved Jacob  (Malachi 1:2, RSV2CE)

God loves me by telling me how to worship and serve him. Not everyone responds in obedience. He loves those who obey, He hates those who do not. 

“A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my fear? says the Lord of hosts to you, O priests, who despise my name. You say, ‘How have we despised your name?’  (Malachi 1:6, RSV2CE)

If God is my Father and Master He deserves love and obedience. If I despise His leadership, I am being hated not loved. 

And now entreat the favor of God, that he may be gracious to us. With such a gift from your hand, will he show favor to any of you? says the Lord of hosts.  (Malachi 1:9, RSV2CE)

See what side I am on. Beg the favor of God to change my mind where I am rebelling. I do not want hatred but love of God!

For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name is great among the nations, and in every place incense is offered to my name, and a pure offering; for my name is great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts.  (Malachi 1:11, RSV2CE)

I am a great King, says the Lord of hosts, and my name is feared among the nations.  (Malachi 1:14, RSV2CE)

God is God and deserves Glory! We blaspheme Him when we act wrong. He is to be feared, served, and loved. 

5 My covenant with him was a covenant of life and peace, and I gave them to him, that he might fear; and he feared me, he stood in awe of my name. 6 True instruction was in his mouth, and no wrong was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many from iniquity. 7 For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and men should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. (Malachi 2:5–7, RSV2CE)

For those who love and serve Him in covenant there is life and peace. Fear being on the wrong side of God, it leads to destruction. I am to live in uprightness and forsake iniquity. I am to guard truth and be a messenger of it. 

You have wearied the Lord with your words. Yet you say, “How have we wearied him?” By saying, “Every one who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delights in them.” Or by asking, “Where is the God of justice?”  (Malachi 2:17, RSV2CE)

The world is bringing weariness to God! We are saying evil is good. We are saying God delights in all people. He does not delight in sin. Unless we are in His side, we are not being delighted in! This is a lie from the devil to keep you in your sin and hated. 

From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts.  (Malachi 3:7, RSV2CE)

I am to stop rebelling. I am to return to God and follow Him and his commands! 

16 Then those who feared the Lord spoke with one another; the Lord heeded and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the Lord and thought on his name. 17 “They shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts, my special possession on the day when I act, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him. 18 Then once more you shall distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him.  (Malachi 3:16–18, RSV2CE)

His hears when I talk about him with fear and love. He marks it in His book. He wants me and those that talk about Him to be a special possession. He will spare me as a daughter because I love and serve him. There will be a blatant distinction in those who are his and not. 

4 “For behold, the day comes, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble; the day that comes shall burn them up, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. 2 But for you who fear my name the sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings. You shall go forth leaping like calves from the stall. 3 And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the Lord of hosts.

4 “Remember the law of my servant Moses, the statutes and ordinances that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel.

5 “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. 6  And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a curse.” (Malachi 4:1–6, RSV2CE)

There is a day coming. Evil rebellious will be destroyed in fire. But those who love and obey will be healed completely! Follow God’s commands! Jesus came to tell us the truth! Believe and obey!!

RESOLUTION 

I choose you my God. I love and fear losing You. Help me see the spots I need to change from rebellion to obedience. Help me know your truth and give you glory but what I do and say. I want you to be able to delight in me. I want to live in the covenant of life and peace with you as my Father and Master!

REST

Thank you God for your truth and commands. Thank you for being willing to teach me what you want. Thank you for your love and help to obey them. Thank you for wanting to make me your special possession. I love you!

​Saint Alphonsus Liguori, bishop

On the love of Christ

All holiness and perfection of soul lies in our love for Jesus Christ our God, who is our Redeemer and our supreme good. It is part of the love of God to acquire and to nurture all the virtues which make a man perfect.

Has not God in fact won for himself a claim on all our love? From all eternity he has loved us. And it is in this vein that he speaks to us: “O man, consider carefully that I first loved you. You had not yet appeared in the light of day, nor did the world yet exist, but already I loved you. From all eternity I have loved you.”

Since God knew that man is enticed by favours, he wished to bind him to his love by means of his gifts: “I want to catch men with the snares, those chains of love in which they allow themselves to be entrapped, so that they will love me.” And all the gifts which he bestowed on man were given to this end. He gave him a soul, made in his likeness, and endowed with memory, intellect and will; he gave him a body equipped with the senses; it was for him that he created heaven and earth and such an abundance of things. He made all these things out of love for man, so that all creation might serve man, and man in turn might love God out of gratitude for so many gifts.

But he did not wish to give us only beautiful creatures; the truth is that to win for himself our love, he went so far as to bestow upon us the fullness of himself. The eternal Father went so far as to give us his only Son. When he saw that we were all dead through sin and deprived of his grace, what did he do? Compelled, as the Apostle says, by the superabundance of his love for us, he sent his beloved Son to make reparation for us and to call us back to a sinless life.

By giving us his Son, whom he did not spare precisely so that he might spare us, he bestowed on us at once every good: grace, love and heaven; for all these goods are certainly inferior to the Son. He who did not spare his own Son, but handed him over for all of us: how could he fail to give us along with his Son all good things?

​READ

And blessed is he who takes no offense at me. (Luke 7:23, RSV2CE)

REFLECTION

Why would someone be offended by Jesus? 

1 He allows evil in His world. 

Evil is a deprivation of good. All things are not absolute perfection so all things have a deficiency. Because God made all things good, and just because there is a deficiency does not mean He cannot still see the good in it. He does not destroy all just because there is a deficiency in it. He can work with it anyway. 

Ex: I have diabetes. I eat right, exercise, and take meds to keep the deficits at bay, but I am not annihilated just because I am not a perfect being anymore due to the disease. 

2 He does not do things the way we want or think He should. 

We want to be our own God. We want to do things our way. We want to direct and control. But we only see a sliver, God sees all of time and all circumstances through time for every action. I must submit my small puny intellect to his vast majesty knowing He knows best for all not just my personal circumstance. 

Ex: He sees consequences from my one action that go all the way to other generations. 

3 He calls us to more and it’s hard road. 

Jesus calls us to follow his way. It is hard because it demands we see from His perspective which is diametrically opposed to the world’s way. The world says get for yourself. God say love all even your enemy. Evil is conquered by good not more evil. Which means it hurts when we have to absorb evil in honor of him. 

Ex: Jesus took the entire world’s sin (love even for evil people) so that if we say yes to his offer we can be completely cleansed. He did not come to annihilate. He absorbed evil with good so all can become good. 

Why I can be blessed if I’m not offended by Jesus. 

If I accept God knows the absolute best for all, and that He is a loving father, that all things are in his hand, that he is guiding us, I can rest in all things that I cannot possibly understand. He is calling all to be blessed, but only those who are willing to be humble can actually experience it, He does not force man to accept Him, He only offers, He is a gentleman not a bully. 

To be blessed means someone who is  fortunate, highly favored, happy, or enjoying the grace of God. Means being  holy, dedicated to fulfilling God's purpose. The word denotes a deep, God-given joy that transcends worldly circumstances. A declaration that a person has either received a blessing from God or can expect to receive his blessing in the future. 

RESOLUTION

I accept that I cannot understand the best way for me. I forsake trying to be my own God and control. I surrender myself to God and let him direct my life for He sees all things, decisions, consequences, for all times and people. I am willing to do good to evil not repay evil for evil. Evil is not going to be eradicated here on this earth until the recreation. This is a hard calling but it’s the only way to blessing. It can only be done by grace of absolute surrender to the Spirit, it’s not a natural human capacity. 

REST

I am blessed because I am happy that God is in control and I can trust Him and His wisdom. I am blessed because doing good areas of evil builds holiness. I am blessed because the Spirit of God is giving me grace to do His will. I am blessed because I am favored by God to be like Him fulfilling His purpose god me as being made in His image.