Steadfast Love

 

 

Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the LORD.

Psalm 32:10

 

 

Over the last several weeks I have talked to three women who are having a very difficult time experiencing the love of God. They know He loves them. They are all three Bible students and godly women who have experienced God’s love in salvation. One told me that it sometimes seems like a long way from her head to her heart.

These ladies all know their Bibles pretty well. They can quote verses about God’s love and all three of them could give (and would give) many examples of the ways that God has shown His love to them individually as well as His acts of grace and mercy in the Gospel.

As I have studied, preparing for a Christmas talk, I was struck by Luke’s statement that Mary “pondered these things in her heart.” This verse about Mary came just after the Shepherds had visited the manger. Luke 2:10-14 tells it this way:

“And the angel said to them, ’Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.’ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

When the Shepherds visited Mary, Joseph, and the newborn Jesus, Luke 2:18 tells us that “they made known the saying that had been told concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them.”

Those Shepherds had told Mary what an angel and the heavenly host had said and sung about her Son coming as a Savior and being laid in manger. She pondered these things in her heart. I think that means she was letting the reality of her situation sink in. These had to be surprising and awesome things to hear.

I don’t think Mary doubted any of it because of God’s revelations to her in the past. The angel Gabriel had appeared to her to tell her she had been chosen to be the mother of the Messiah, the Holy Spirit had come over her and she became pregnant, and Joseph had been informed through a dream that he was to take Mary as his wife. Supernatural events were not new to her; but they required some digesting!

Well, this is what I think we have to do to know and experience God’s love for us. The Bible tells us that God has a steadfast love for each one of His own (Psalm 25:10). In reality, as we grow more and more in the understanding of God’s sovereignty and our own sinfulness, it might seem like a logical conclusion to think that God is not loving but punishing us through difficult circumstances. After all, we know He could change our situation if He wanted to. Intellectually we know that He uses those hard times to grow us into His likeness but it may feel like He’s turned His back on us.

What I want to offer are a few truths to “ponder in our hearts” when we are in those times when it doesn’t feel like God loves us. Let the reality of what they say sink in, digest them. Picture yourself as the disciple John, resting your head on the chest of Jesus and remember these:

For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed,” says the LORD, who has compassion on you. Isaiah 54:10

For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; Psalm 103:11

The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness; He will quiet you by his love; He will exult over you with loud singing. Zephaniah 3:17

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 3:22-23

but, though He cause grief, He will have compassion according to the abundance of His steadfast love; for He does not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men. Lamentations 3:32-33

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him.  John 3:16-17

But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8