Unfailing Love

 How different would our lives look if we truly believed that God loves us with an unfailing love? 

What kind of choices would we make? 
Who would we choose as friends? 
If single, would we make the same choices in the kind of person we date?
How would we react in difficult situations?
Would we spend more quality time with God each day?
Would we still watch Glee on TV?
How would we react if we felt we were being rejected or criticized by our peers, teachers, or parents?
How would we react when we looked at ourselves in the mirror?
If our performance didn't go so well, what would our thought life be like?
What would I let go of? 
What fears would I release?
Would I still have unforgiveness in my heart toward someone who hurt me?

These are just a FEW questions that come to my mind and cause me to realize that this is a fundamental question that affects nearly every facet of our lives.  How different would my life be if I truly believed that God loves me with an unfailing love?  How different would my life be if I truly grasped the depth of love Jesus Christ has for me?

Yesterday, I listened to an amazing sermon by John Piper.  In it, he goes one step further:

"I have been asking audiences for years: “Do you feel more loved by God because God makes much of you, or because God, at great cost to his Son, frees you to enjoy making much of him forever?” The aim of that question has never been to deny that God makes much of us. He does. (Which we will see shortly.) The aim has been to help people relocate the bottom of their joy—the decisive foundation of their joy—from self to God.

It is so interesting to me how we can so easily make our Christian walk about us and not about Him.  Our motives can so easily be skewed-sometimes without even realizing it!  I've touted the phrase:  "Its not about me" over and over again, but I don't think I truly grasped the concept until I listened to this sermon.  Piper's words made me realize how selfish I have been---just pure SELFISHNESS!  Allen and I were so convicted after listening to this sermon.  We realized that we have not truly grasped the unfailing love of God, because, if we had, our lives would look a lot different.  Yes, we would still struggle.  Yes, we would still have difficult times, but we would not be in bondage.

I realize just how many hours of my life I have wasted being consumed with self.  The sad thing is that many of those hours were spent thinking and worrying about what other people thought of me, rather than focusing on the truth of who I am in Christ.  When we realize who we are in Christ, we no longer focus on ourselves.  We don't allow our thought life to center on questions like:  "I wonder what he/she thought about me?  I just don't measure up--why can't I be like her or him?  Why do I look this way?  How come my students don't sing as well has hers?  These kinds of thoughts used to haunt me back in college and for the first few years I taught voice.  In fact, they consumed me. 

I tried so hard to put on a mask.  Some of you know what I am talking about because you do it too.  Its the "I'm supposed to have it all together because I'm a Christian and have no chinks in my armor" mask.  I may have fooled some of the people around me, but I didn't fool God.  He was looking straight into my heart.   Some serious sanctification needed to take place. 

Even though I am experiencing freedom from that kind of selfishness--it seems a new kind has crept into my life.  Now, it is all centered in my children and our family life.  I have to watch that I don't put my children above Jesus Christ.  It is interesting.  When I really understand what Jesus did for me and the grace God has shown me, I worship Him with a heart that is pure.  I think about Him more.  I talk about Him more with my children--rather than making my children the focal point.  Instead of listing out rules for Caroline to follow, I simply point her to the reason for every choice we make:  Jesus Christ.  His love compels me.

Paul said it perfectly:

For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

When I truly grasp the love of God, I am free to love others.  I no longer live for myself.  Notice that Paul alludes to the fact that he once regarded Christ from a worldly point of view.  I must confess that I have been guilty of that.  Without realizing it, I minimize his sacrifice.  I underestimate the depth of his love.  On one hand, I tolerate my sin and on the other, I don't grasp just how much I have been forgiven.   It is his love that will compel me to live differently--but I have to accept that love and believe.

For those of you reading this blog, I don't know where you are with all of this.  I don't know what your struggle is.  The bottom line is, if we are thinking about ourselves--whether good or bad, we are not thinking about Him and worshiping Him. He is not, as Piper put it--the "decisive foundation of our joy."

I am well aware that so far, in this blog, I have mostly been focusing on the "us" end of things.  See how easy it is to do?  We can even make our Bible studies about us if we are not careful.  For the remainder of the blog, I just want to focus our attention on Him.

There is an amazing word in Hebrew that describes God's love for us.  It is used throughout the Old Testament and is used to describe God's unfailing love, kindness, and mercy for His covenant people.
The word is hesed and is translated:  loving-kindness, mercy, love, and faithfulness.  This word is used about 249 times in the OT.  Almost all of the uses of this word refer to an aspect of God's character that we often don't truly trust.  Yet, it is essential to knowing Him.

Psalm 118 and Psalm 136 are excellent examples of the hesed of the LORD our God.  Just take a few moments and read them slowly.  His Word is alive and active!

Psa. 118:1   Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.  2 Let Israel say: “His love endures forever.”  3 Let the house of Aaron say: “His love endures forever.”  4 Let those who fear the LORD say: “His love endures forever.”  5 In my anguish I cried to the LORD, and he answered by setting me free.  6 The LORD is with me; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?  7 The LORD is with me; he is my helper. I will look in triumph on my enemies.  8 It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in man.  9 It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in princes.  10 All the nations surrounded me, but in the name of the LORD I cut them off.  11 They surrounded me on every side, but in the name of the LORD I cut them off.  12 They swarmed around me like bees, but they died out as quickly as burning thorns; in the name of the LORD I cut them off.  13 I was pushed back and about to fall, but the LORD helped me.  14 The LORD is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.  15 Shouts of joy and victory resound in the tents of the righteous: “The LORD’s right hand has done mighty things!  16 The LORD’s right hand is lifted high; the LORD’s right hand has done mighty things!”  17 I will not die but live, and will proclaim what the LORD has done.  18 The LORD has chastened me severely, but he has not given me over to death.  19 Open for me the gates of righteousness; I will enter and give thanks to the LORD.  20 This is the gate of the LORD through which the righteous may enter.  21 I will give you thanks, for you answered me; you have become my salvation.  22 The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone;  23 the LORD has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes.  24 This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.  25 O LORD, save us; O LORD, grant us success.  26 Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD. From the house of the LORD we bless you.  27 The LORD is God, and he has made his light shine upon us. With boughs in hand, join in the festal procession up to the horns of the altar.  28 You are my God, and I will give you thanks; you are my God, and I will exalt you.  29 Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.


 Psalm 136:
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.
To him who alone does great wonders, His love endures forever.
Who by his understanding made the heavens, His love endures forever.
Who spread out the earth upon the waters, His love endures forever.
Who made the great lights — His love endures forever.
The sun to govern the day, His love endures forever.
The moon and stars to govern the night; His love endures forever.
To him who struck down the firstborn of Egypt His love endures forever.
And brought Israel out from among them His love endures forever.
With a mighty hand and outstretched arm; His love endures forever.
To him who divided the Red Sea asunder His love endures forever.
And brought Israel through the midst of it, His love endures forever. but swept Pharaoh and his army into the Red Sea; His love endures forever.
To him who led his people through the desert, His love endures forever.
Who struck down great kings, His love endures forever.
And killed mighty kings — His love endures forever.
And gave their land as an inheritance, His love endures forever.

To the One who remembered us in our low estate His love endures forever.
And freed us from our enemies, His love endures forever.
And who gives food to every creature. His love endures forever.
Give thanks to the God of heaven. His love endures forever.



I love the quote by Charles Spurgeon in his commentary on Psalm 118:
"Because his mercy endureth for ever:   Mercy is a great part of his goodness, and one which more concerns us than any other, for we are sinners and have need of his mercy. Angels may say that he is good, but they need not his mercy and cannot therefore take an equal delight in it; inanimate creation declares that he is good, but it cannot feel his mercy, for it has never transgressed; but man, deeply guilty and graciously forgiven, beholds mercy as the very focus and centre of the goodness of the Lord. The endurance of the divine mercy is a special subject for song: notwithstanding our sins, our trials, our fears, his mercy endureth for ever. The best of earthly joys pass away, and even the world itself grows old and hastens to decay, but there is no change in the mercy of God; he was faithful to our forefathers, he is merciful to us, and will be gracious to our children and our children’s children."

Here is the truth about the hesed of God to his covenant people.  If you are in Christ, you are in covenant with God.

God is eternally loyal
God is eternally faithful
God is eternally merciful
God is eternally kind
God is love--eternally.

I know you have already spent a lot of time reading this blog entry, but please set aside some time to listen to this sermon by John Piper.  It is too crucial and too foundational to miss.

How Much Does God Love This Church?: "How Much Does God Love This Church? on DesiringGod.org"

Eph. 3:14   For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name.  I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being,  so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge — that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.