by Brother Jon Tellifero
On the last weekend in April, our son Josh will be getting married!
Let me brag a moment: Josh is a good man. His fiancée is a good woman. They should make a great team for the Kingdom of God, for each other, and for their world. To say the least I am enthused that they are marrying.
Early in their dating Josh called me and said, “Dad, it feels good to be liked.” For me that is a helpful statement. Maybe it will help you too.
The word “like” is used many times in the Bible, but it is primarily used as a comparative preposition, “That Golden Retriever is like a good friend.” I want us to think about the power of being liked by someone. The psalmist wrote about, in my opinion, being liked by God in Psalm 34:8. The psalmist wrote, “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the person who takes refuge in God!” I believe this psalm is written by someone who is confident that God likes him or her. Psalms 34 begins with these words, “I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.” And ends with these words, “The Lord redeems the life of his servants; none of those who take refuge in Him will be condemned.” It seems to me that this man or woman is LIKED by God. This business of being liked by the Creator seems to allow them to soar above life’s struggles.
Being liked, I believe, allowed John, the writer of Revelation, to face wrongful imprisonment, isolation, and hardship. While exiled on the Isle of Patmos he wrote, “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day.” This Spirit filled experience allowed John to envision a world of healing for everyone. He would later write: “Look I saw a new heaven and earth… Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God… On either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations” (Revelation 21:1, 22:1 and 2).
Both the psalmist and the Revelator knew the power of “Like”. I believe the power of Brother Stanley’s testimony is that he was convinced that God liked him. On the night that Brother Stanley surrendered to Christ at Central Methodist Church in Lucknow, India, Brother Stanley was overwhelmed with God liking him. I believe Brother Stanley arose singing, “Love lifted me. When nothing else could help, love lifted me.”
Brother Stanley knew the power of being liked. John knew. The psalmist knew. May we know the power of God who likes us, even loves us.
