Tag: hope in god

No Further from God’s Love in the Lows of Life

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We live in a culture marked by insecurity – ups and downs. Walking into a coffee shop, I spotted near the front door a leading newspaper with charts strewn across its front page. Each one showed lines shifting sharply upward and downward in spurts – all describing financial markets. Every morning, my blood tester shows me whether or not my blood sugar level is high or low compared to normal. Our ministry’s website analyzer graphs peaks and valleys according to people’s interest in our site. We are inundated with ups and downs. Even our emotional mood changes with circumstances, body chemistry, and human interaction.

In the midst of continual fluctuation, what a comfort it is to realize that God’s love never vacillates. No high or low – no up or down – can ever change the care and love of our God who transcends a fickle world. Though riding the roller coaster of an unstable world system may tend to make us feel insecure, God’s faithfulness never lessens and never ceases. We may be tempted to feel less loved because we endure a particular shift or low point, but – in reality – NOTHING separates us from God’s love. Take the poetic words of Romans 8:38-39 (ESV) at face value:

    “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Did you catch that all-important phrase, “Nor height nor depth”? The highs of the stock market or my savings account make me no more a receiver of God’s love than do the lows of the same. The zenith of my physical health makes me no more accepted by God than my illness. I see God in the peak of my joy and favorable circumstances, but the pit of sadness and suffering do not move me any further from my Creator. Nothing separates me from His love – no height and no depth – nothing.

We rest secure and accepted because God’s love is relentless. His love does not wane when circumstances do. His love does not increase when blessing comes. Why? Because His love is infinite in strength. Compared to the changes and situations of life, God’s love cannot be measured. His love is always at full capacity. His love consumes whatever would sever us from Him. The appearance of angels in our lives does not make God love us more, just as the attack of demons cannot remove one bit of His love from us. Life itself cannot divide us from God’s love, yet neither can death. No matter the place or way in which we find ourselves, God’s love is greater and unyielding in its grip on us.

Let no man of earth or demon of Hell steal from you this truth. Let no circumstance of life – good or bad – high or low – take from you this hope. Let no argument, speech, or false teaching rob you of this fact. Nothing in all creation can separate you from God’s love. He is the Creator. He loves you. Everything He made ultimately bows to His will. All creation belongs to Him. Nothing under His sovereignty can diminish His love for you, because He is THE Sovereign!

Come high, come low. Come angel, come demon. Come today, come tomorrow. Come life, come death. Come anything. God’s love is with me. Always. Highs don’t draw us closer, and lows don’t take us further from His love.

Is A Better Day Coming?

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For great is your love, reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies. – Psalm 57:10 (NIV)

Today I looked out my kitchen window into the leafless plum tree in my front yard. It is March 1, and only tiny buds appear on that tree, for it is not yet the official season of spring. Much to my heart’s delight, a fat, little robin was perched on one of the upper branches. Just as I spotted the bird, it began to sing to me! (Okay, maybe it wasn’t actually singing to me, but allow me to entertain the thought.) The familiar song of the common robin brought a hugely comforting feeling to my heart: spring is near!

In the dead of winter it is hard to imagine that warmer and longer days will ever arrive. With the temperatures still cool and the brown of leafless branches yet the main color of the horizon, it is also difficult to picture the vibrant activity and color of summer. Yet, the little robin reminds us that the season is surely changing. With uncanny regularity, spring follows winter. The timeless, promise of Genesis 8:27 (NIV) stands true, “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.”

The robin’s cheerful song and orange breast on that brown branch reminded me of something else – God’s faithfulness. Flying right into the face of the cold and dormant nature of winter comes the color and activity of spring! In the same way that God is faithful to turn the seasons because of His promises, we know that He is faithful to turn our lives because of His promises. Flying right into the face of your dark and sad day will come the light and hope of a new life season. God promises to never give to us more than we can bear (I Corinthians 10:13). Even the man, Job, said, “But he knows the way I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold” (Job 23:10, NIV).

That little songbird brought to the forefront Psalm 57:10 (NIV), “For great is your love, reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies.” Surely, God’s steadfast nature reaches to the very skies of our world, delivering robins to Western Pennsylvania as a deposit on the promise of summer. God’s faithfulness reaches similarly to the skies of your life, setting forth the deposit on the promise of a season of healing and joy. Ecclesiastes 3:3-4 aptly proclaims, “[There is] a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance.”

God’s faithfulness reaches to both the skies and to the most remote and broken part of our human hearts. In fact, there is no place to which His faithfulness does not extend. That is why the Psalmist could say in 57:5 (NIV), “Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth.” As God is lifted up far past the expanse of this universe, so the hope He gives in His promises far surpasses all the difficulty we face. As He delivers the songbird at the start of spring, so He delivers hope to your heart even as your “winter” goes on. It won’t be long. He is reliable. He keeps His promise. So, let us be like the little robin in my leafless tree set against the gray sky, and let us sing – despite the current weather. For, we know spring is on the way. “I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples” (Psalm 57:9, NIV).