The Heartbreak of God

Genesis 6:6-7 - And the Lord regretted that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved at heart. So the Lord said, I will destroy, blot out, and wipe away mankind, whom I have created from the face of the ground--not only man, [but] the beasts and the creeping things and the birds of the air--for it grieves Me and makes Me regretful that I have made them.

My heart twinges as I read this Scripture. It hurts to imagine the way regret must feel in the heart of God - regret at such an infinitely deep level. Regret for something so large as the creation of man - man, whom God created as a companion and lover of Him. I think this must have hurt Him infinitely worse than the worst of losses we could ever have endured as humans. How His heart must have hurt!

Genesis 6:11-12 - The earth was depraved and putrid in God's sight, and the land was filled with violence (desecration, infringement, outrage, assault, and lust for power). And God looked upon the world and saw how degenerate, debased, and vicious it was, for all humanity had corrupted their way upon the earth and lost their true direction.

How is this any different than the state we are in today? Our hearts are turned against God, and our lands are full of violence, desecration, outrage, assault and lust for power, and we, collectively, have certainly lost the true direction that once guided us. What, then, must we assume God feels in His heart when He looks at the condition of man? I've often wondered about this. I doubt my heart has the capacity to endure the paint and hurt He feels because of us.

And it breaks my heart to think that this generation - my generation - is the cause of so much pain in the heart of my Loving God. It is the cry of my heart that I would daily walk in a way that is pleasing to Him, and that the church would begin to turn around, turn our hearts back to Him, and live out lives that please Him and bring Him joy. We should never, for a moment, be the source of pain to a God Who has done so much for us! I pray that we will be continually transformed by Him, becoming more and more like Him, that we would also become a constant source of joy for Him in a world filled with so much hurt.