God’s love and mercy, is revealed dynamically in the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ! We Christians live our lives in the assurance of this fact. But, if we focus on that alone, are we getting the whole picture? For you see, as uncomfortable as it may be to think about, God’s wrath is every bit as real as His love and mercy. And getting those truths of God’s character out of balance puts us in a dangerous and vulnerable position for the enemy’s attacks.

Let’s examine this by considering our birth into God’s family. We have left a life bent on pleasing ourselves to a life bent on pleasing God. As a young Christian it is God’s plan that we grow. That growth will take place in accordance with how we are nurtured. But just like a newborn babe, we will fail to thrive, if we aren’t consistently fed. And how is a newborn Christian to thrive? By spending time with God in prayer and His word. And therein lies Satan’s target.

Throughout history, God has protected and preserved the Bible. He provided everything we needed to know about Him, His redemptive plan, and how we are to live, all within the pages of Scripture. And those words are the source of our nourishment.

But it is our nature to be more concerned about pleasing ourselves rather than God. But as Christians we now have a new nature. A nature that is becoming like Christ the more we avail ourselves to the nourishment of God’s truths. As the new nature matures and grows in strength, the old nature is diminished. So, if the enemy can distract us, he can keep us from growing and learning about those truths.

Think about how self-absorbed Society is today. Some psychologist say that the I-generation or Me-generation (that they are called this aught to tell us something) take it for granted that the self comes first. Of course, not everyone of this Me-generation are self-absorbed. However, Christian young adults live among a society that is driven by this ‘it’s all about me mentality’. And if they aren’t careful they will be tempted to dismiss the seriousness of their sins, or any Christian for that matter. But ponder on this: God allowed Christ to be tortured and murdered for our sins. That’s how seriously He takes sin.

So what do we suppose will be the effect on a Christian, if we don’t have the wrath of God in proper perspective with His love and mercy? If we only focus on God’s love and mercy, can we fully embrace the sacrifice Jesus made and why He made it?