Skip to main content

His Love Endures Forever







Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good. His love endures forever Give thanks to the God of gods. His love endures forever. Give thanks to the Lord of lords: His love endures forever (Psalm 136:1-3)


             Do you get the message? His love endures forever. He's good, He is God (and there is no other) and He is Lord (all others are less than He.) His love endures forever. The love of other gods doesn't endure forever; neither does the love of other lords. Your significant other may decide not to love you. Your friends may tell you they never want to see you again. Your community, state or national leaders may not give you a passing thought after they promised so many good things to you. But God's love endures forever.
            There are times when I am hard to love. There are times when I find specific people or people in general hard to love. Neither I, nor anyone else can earn someone else's enduring love that endures forever. We have no right to demand it. This is the mistake many make. They think they deserve God's love, that they've earned it and that He owes it to them just because He made them, and they define love by their life being the way they want it to be. They say, "I deserve to have 75 degree temperatures and sunny skies year round. I deserve to have a job that pays at least the median wage for the nation. I deserve to have a faithful significant other who thinks that my feet don't touch the ground and that I am the center of his/her universe. I deserve the right to do whatever I please and still have God love me enough to force His forgiveness on me even when I've made it clear that I reject Him and all that He represents. I deserve His love and blessing no matter how wickedly I act." 
           And God does. His love endures to the point where He sacrificed His Son to make it possible to save us. It endures to the point where He volunteered to come and die. It endures to the point where He pursues relentlessly as the Hound of Heaven. It endures to the point where He takes seriously our foolish notions about other gods, and does battle with them to show that they are not gods. Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. He is God. He is Lord. His love endures long enough to defeat your hate and, if you insist, long enough to give you what you demand in your rejection of Him.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Higher Thoughts

  “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the  Lord . “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)           The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments,   for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord      so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. (I Corinthians 2:15-16) If you read about the ancient gods of the various peoples, you’ll find that they think just like people. In fact, they think just like the sort of people we really wouldn’t want to be around. They think like the most corrupt Hollywood producer or, like hormone overloaded teens with no upbringing.   It’s embarrassing to read. I have a friend who argues that because God is not just like us, He is so vastly dif...

Think About These Things

                 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. (Philippians 4:8) This passage is a major challenge for me. Like everyone else, I struggle to keep my thoughts from wandering off into the weeds, then wondering what possible benefits those weeds might have… Sigh. But as a writer, I have to delve at least a little into the ignoble, wrong, impure, unlovely, and debased. After all, there’s no story if everything’s just as it should be and everyone’s happy. As Christians, there are times when we need to deal with all the negatives, but that makes it even more important that we practice turning our minds by force of attention to what is noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy. It’s just too easy to get stuck in a swamp. With my...

A Virgin?

           Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14)           This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 1:18)           But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”            “How will this be,” Mary asked the...