Your love, Lord, reaches to the heavens,
Your faithfulness to the skies.
Your righteousness is like the highest mountains,
Your justice like the great deep.
You, Lord, preserve both people and animals.
How priceless is Your unfailing love, O God!
People take refuge in the shadow of Your wings.
Psalms 36:5-7
“If God’s love is unfailing, then why does it <seem to> fail?” This seems like a silly question, but as I read the above passage, statements like “it’s not enough,” and “it doesn’t feel unfailing” arose in my mind.
Memories of heartache, depression and disappointment flooded to the surface. At first I was scared—those type of thoughts are not good and, according to what I had just read, they were contrary to the word of God. I fought the urge to stuff the thoughts. I wanted to ignore them, but also felt compelled to examine them and whether I believed them or not.
Failure in itself is very subjective. What one may see as a failure another sees as a success. I don’t know about you, but my feelings and God’s words often clash. Thankfully, God’s Truth also trumps my feelings. So, of course for comfort, I went to my Bible.
God’s love never fails. By definition it’s unfailing. But I found some people who momentarily felt like it did.
- Both Mary and Martha exclaimed (John 11), “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died.” Even others in the crowd questioned, “This man healed a blind man. Couldn’t he have kept Lazarus from dying?” God’s love had failed…or so it seemed. We know that Lazarus was raised from the dead.
- The Israelites said, in Exodus 14, “Why did you bring us out here to die in the wilderness? Weren’t there enough graves for us in Egypt? What have you done to us? Why did you make us leave Egypt?” They were trapped by the Red Sea. God’s love had failed…or so it seemed. We know they crossed through the sea.
The more I thought on this concept of unfailing love, the more I realized that I myself have felt failed by God’s love, i.e., when He called me to Hermitage, alone and away from my support system. I felt failed then, but the Lord has showed me the truth of the this situation.
This is what it boils down to: the truth is that God’s Word is Truth. It says His love is unfailing…and so it is. Every situation needs to be viewed with this in mind and if you cannot see His truth, ask.
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Lord, thank You for awesomeness. Forgive me for the times when I momentarily allow my feelings to trump Your truth and when I make my circumstances bigger than Your awesome power. Thank You for Your unfailing love that never, ever, ever fails! And for Your faithfulness and reliability. In Jesus name, I pray. Amen.
