Steadfast love and faithfulness meet. Righteousness and peace kiss each other. (Verse 10)
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. Great is Your faithfulness. Lamentations 3
And the effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever. Isaiah 32
I have been out there, like many of you, away from God. Pain pushed my buttons, but I moved my feet. I know in the scheme of things (and believe me, there was one) I found myself doubting the goodness of God. Some days, even His existence, because, well, life blew up around me. Part of said scheme was to cause my heart to wander from the assurance I was loved by a mighty, benevolent God. I lost my mother to cancer, my father to jail, and two of my lifelong friends to breast cancer within a short span of time. It seemed to me that God killed His children and abandoned those in pain. I couldn't think it correctly...and I had some help there, too. All this to say, my love for Jesus was predicated to some degree on my own ideas about what is fair and on the notion I could figure out what He is doing at all times. Life turned to crap and it didn't make sense. So I strolled into the dark to ponder and sin.
From that journey, though, I have learned a thing or two. Doing wrong doesn't feel good. Not when you already know Jesus. Righteousness is about doing what pleases Him because of all He has done for us. Not about Brownie points. When my heart was angry with God, it was easier to do what I wanted to because I could say He didn't care. That had been my only motivation before. Wandering off from those feelings of love for God left me with no real catalyst to be a Christian except I had been one for so long. I know the Holy Spirit lives in me. He doesn't go away. I can hide Him in the corner of my life somewhere, but when He can't shout, He will whisper...and whisper...and whisper. It is very uncomfortable. I could never get away from the faithful wooing of my God. How could I possibly have any peace, then? See what I mean? As Paul told Timothy, "if we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself."
Why would Jesus keep on keeping on with us? Because He first loved us. Gave Himself up on our behalf. He is CRAZY about me! And you! Can you imagine climbing up on a cross to be murdered so I wouldn't have to pay for my own sins? Bet not. Jesus did! Before the foundations of the world God knew me. Watched me in my mother's womb. Wrote out my life before I was even a day old. (Psalm 139) He sings over me with joy (Zephaniah) and stands between my life and the evil one. God is jealous of my love for other gods. That's why when He finds us in a pit, He goes to hell and back to retrieve what belongs to Him.
Day and night, night and day, Jesus is thinking about us. Nothing we can do can make Him love us more...or less. Love, to Him, is love. Always meeting faithfulness head on. It's His love that makes Him take me for another day. To hang in there with me when I am hurt or just plain stupid. For I am sure that neither life nor death, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height not depth, nor anything else in creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8) How absolutely out of the box amazing that Jesus decides He'll love me steadfastly, faithfully.
If you've wandered very far away from your first Love, you know He comes to get you. To kiss your wounds and bind up the heart you allowed, in your disobedience, to be broken. As He holds you, it is the caress of one you have betrayed, and that is what makes the sweetness of it almost too tender to bear. Forgiven and washed clean, made right by His grace, there is finally peace again. A peace you could just kiss you've missed it so much. I know I didn't want to move from His side after that. Did I still have questions about the train wreck that sent me packing? Yes. But they weren't accusations any longer. Questions are different. I understand His love so much better now and know He knows things I can't possibly understand. I John 4:20 became a life verse. For whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and He knows everything.
Who is loved like God loves us? No one. Unique to Him is His faithfulness and steadfast love. I want to be right with Him. Not always right. Vast difference. To please Him is my highest aim and my easiest burden for I am yoked together in this life by His Holy Spirit to live in the righteousness that results in peace, quietness and trust forever. I never want to break His heart again.
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. Great is Your faithfulness. Lamentations 3
And the effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever. Isaiah 32
I have been out there, like many of you, away from God. Pain pushed my buttons, but I moved my feet. I know in the scheme of things (and believe me, there was one) I found myself doubting the goodness of God. Some days, even His existence, because, well, life blew up around me. Part of said scheme was to cause my heart to wander from the assurance I was loved by a mighty, benevolent God. I lost my mother to cancer, my father to jail, and two of my lifelong friends to breast cancer within a short span of time. It seemed to me that God killed His children and abandoned those in pain. I couldn't think it correctly...and I had some help there, too. All this to say, my love for Jesus was predicated to some degree on my own ideas about what is fair and on the notion I could figure out what He is doing at all times. Life turned to crap and it didn't make sense. So I strolled into the dark to ponder and sin.
From that journey, though, I have learned a thing or two. Doing wrong doesn't feel good. Not when you already know Jesus. Righteousness is about doing what pleases Him because of all He has done for us. Not about Brownie points. When my heart was angry with God, it was easier to do what I wanted to because I could say He didn't care. That had been my only motivation before. Wandering off from those feelings of love for God left me with no real catalyst to be a Christian except I had been one for so long. I know the Holy Spirit lives in me. He doesn't go away. I can hide Him in the corner of my life somewhere, but when He can't shout, He will whisper...and whisper...and whisper. It is very uncomfortable. I could never get away from the faithful wooing of my God. How could I possibly have any peace, then? See what I mean? As Paul told Timothy, "if we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself."
Why would Jesus keep on keeping on with us? Because He first loved us. Gave Himself up on our behalf. He is CRAZY about me! And you! Can you imagine climbing up on a cross to be murdered so I wouldn't have to pay for my own sins? Bet not. Jesus did! Before the foundations of the world God knew me. Watched me in my mother's womb. Wrote out my life before I was even a day old. (Psalm 139) He sings over me with joy (Zephaniah) and stands between my life and the evil one. God is jealous of my love for other gods. That's why when He finds us in a pit, He goes to hell and back to retrieve what belongs to Him.
Day and night, night and day, Jesus is thinking about us. Nothing we can do can make Him love us more...or less. Love, to Him, is love. Always meeting faithfulness head on. It's His love that makes Him take me for another day. To hang in there with me when I am hurt or just plain stupid. For I am sure that neither life nor death, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height not depth, nor anything else in creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8) How absolutely out of the box amazing that Jesus decides He'll love me steadfastly, faithfully.
If you've wandered very far away from your first Love, you know He comes to get you. To kiss your wounds and bind up the heart you allowed, in your disobedience, to be broken. As He holds you, it is the caress of one you have betrayed, and that is what makes the sweetness of it almost too tender to bear. Forgiven and washed clean, made right by His grace, there is finally peace again. A peace you could just kiss you've missed it so much. I know I didn't want to move from His side after that. Did I still have questions about the train wreck that sent me packing? Yes. But they weren't accusations any longer. Questions are different. I understand His love so much better now and know He knows things I can't possibly understand. I John 4:20 became a life verse. For whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and He knows everything.
Who is loved like God loves us? No one. Unique to Him is His faithfulness and steadfast love. I want to be right with Him. Not always right. Vast difference. To please Him is my highest aim and my easiest burden for I am yoked together in this life by His Holy Spirit to live in the righteousness that results in peace, quietness and trust forever. I never want to break His heart again.
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