Thoughts on God's lifting and loving

Key idea. In grace, God lifts us from our low estate. Being love, God comforts and disciplines us as the one who loves us best and most.

I've been thinking about the believer's relationship with God. Here are a few tidbits.

• God's lifting of us is a function of his grace. We cannot lift ourselves, at least not in the same way. We can stir up positivity and courage, but he lifts our state in reality.
• God's loving is a function of his being, for God Is Love. Sometimes his love feels good to us (comfort) and sometimes bad (discipline).
• Our pride and distractibility trip us up so much and so often. In his grace and mercy, God lifts our faces to see his own (reflection on Psalm 78).
• God's love is the root of all other loves, so we who love God should love best (reflection Tolstoy's Calendar of Wisdom March 6th).