Words Creating Space

Our last post spoke to inviting God’s judgment into our lives, as He only desires good for us, and therefore, we can trust His revelations to us.  What a welcome 180 degree turn from understanding God’s judgment as condemnation and judging others as well as ourselves through that lens, to our detriment.  God desires for us to live into His presence and into His goodness towards us and to embrace His love and reflect that love to others.  We can only love others well through His love, a love that invites us to be free of self-incrimination and condemning judgment.  

We can trust God’s love because He is steadfast and unwavering in His goodness toward us.  When I hear the word “steadfast”, I do not automatically jump to applying it to myself or others on a regular basis.  The idea of being unwavering about anything is a bit daunting. People in general are just not steadfastly loyal or dutiful. It’s not in our nature to deliver on our promises and intentions every single time.  Yet I seek to do so in my own bumbling well-meaning way, only with God’s help.

    
GOD alone is steadfast. There is no better homage to this unique trait of our God’s than the one found in Psalm 136:1, which states, “Give thanks to the Lord for He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever.”  This last refrain is repeated for 26 verses!  The psalmist speaks of God’s goodness in detailing His “great wonders” in creation, His leading of the Israelites to the Promised Land, their victories in that land, and of His continuing provision, all reinforced by “for His steadfast love endures forever”.  Words like “faithfulness” and “lovingkindness”, “endures” and “eternal”, “His love never quits”, appear in various translations of the Bible to seek to convey the kind of God we have Who is for us, totally in our court, all the time, and “who does not change like shifting shadows”. (James 1:17) He alone embodies the good we can completely depend upon. 

My husband and I have high expectations of one another, as we should, but we know that despite our best intentions, we will disappoint each other.  It may be in forgetting something that has been on the calendar for weeks, or in having different priorities on time and finances, or in holding differing perspectives on a family situation- things that cause us to lapse into frustration and leave us with unmet hopes.  God’s steadfast presence and our reliance on Him enables us to love one another through these times of frustration and trial. Family relationships require steadfastness, as we choose to remain in relationships that have such high value to us. Likewise, through God’s steadfastness to us, He communicates that we are an important part of His family and have worth to Him despite our imperfect performance. As our security grows in God’s steadfastness, we grow in our desire to offer a reflection of this presence to one another.

While I oftentimes, unwittingly and unintentionally, put conditions on and boundaries around my love for others, God’s faithfulness knows no bounds.  The Bible recounts story after story of God’s people choosing a different way and His continuing presence and heart for them.  That steadfastness is rooted in why He created us in the first place–in His overwhelming goodness He chose you, He chose me, knowing our flaws even before He breathed the breath of life into Adam, because He desired to be in relationship with us, and despite everything, continues to be unwavering in that choice.

He is the hope to which we can cling at all times in all circumstances, and enables loving relationships with others, as we grow in knowing Him.  His grace and mercy are our daily provision, and as we extend it to others we are tapping into His bottomless reservoir of steadfastness.  May we each morning upon awakening, throughout the day, then again as we lay down in the evening, choose life, “that you may love the Lord your God, listen to His voice, and hold fast to Him.”  (Deuteronomy 30:20).  After all, He is holding fast to you and refuses to let go.