I wonder what the typical ways are whereby we show that we are truly in earnest about something or someone. I guess that time is one good indicator. Regardless of how busy we all are, we all have the ability, or perhaps I should say the tendency, to sink time into our beloved things, the golf, the car, the garden.
Money, of course, is another indicator of us being in earnest. When someone is very precious to us we are willing to expend a relatively huge sum to procure that ring which will grace the finger. In “The Importance of Being Earnest” one of the characters shows her ultimate commitment by getting a very painful tattoo done with her lover’s name. We should not think that God would go to any lesser extent. Isaiah tells us just how in earnest God is:
“Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands…” (Isaiah 49v15-16)
In theory at least the Israelites responded to this commitment:
“If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill. May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not consider Jerusalem my highest joy.” (Psalm 137v5-6)
Be assured that God is totally in earnest about you. He has demonstrated this in the clearest of ways at the cross. For there the Father gave up His one and only Trophy that He might have Him forever engraved with our names. So then let us not fail to receive such a Trophy.
