“May your unfailing love be with us, Lord, even as we put our hope in you.” Psalm 33:20-22.

God’s love never fails. Ever.

Do you believe that?

As young adults, we are presented with decisions every day in pretty much every area of life – careers, relationships, ministry, where to live, family, friends. If you said you never experience fear in any of those areas, I don’t think I’d believe you.

But what makes some people able to ride through things with such grace and ease? Not the people who say “Everything’s fine” while their stomach churns. The Lord knows we’ve all done that. But the people who are honest with themselves that they DON’T have the answers, they DON’T know where they’re headed, but are actually at peace with that?

If you’re honestly at that place, then praise the Lord for that! For the rest of us, I’d like to provoke us to go just a step deeper into the answer – His love.

I know God loves me. I know He cares about everything that concerns me. But recently He’s been pressing on me that if I claim to believe that, I need to allow it to move from head knowledge to my heart.

There are certain areas where I’m afraid to rely solely on God’s love. My flesh would rather try to control things myself. Why? Because to be frank, it’s scary.

It’s scary to give yourself over to Someone else. It’s scary to relinquish the illusion of control. It starts with those “what ifs.” “What if His love won’t be there for me?” “What if I still mess things up?”

I know I’m not the only one who’s felt this way. It looks different for each of us. It started in the Garden. The Serpent said to Eve, “Did God really say…” (Genesis 3). He then convinced her that God was holding out on her. He made her question His love.

In order to rest in His love – which brings joy and peace – there are two things we need to grasp.

We are worthy, just as we are.
Some of us have lost our peace because we’re not walking in agreement with what God says about us. We have taken our eyes off of him, and they’ve slowly moved to “me.” Then it moves to “others,” and before we know it, we’re caught in the performance trap.

You see, any time your eyes move from Him to you, then to others, you are now listening to your flesh. It’s your flesh that says “Look at BLANK, they’re doing this and that, and what are you doing? You’re failing.” Or “You should be here, and you’re not. You don’t measure up.”

So we work hard to earn the approval of others, and even the Lord, thinking that once we can just get that, we’ll feel better. But that never happens, because we’re going about things the wrong way.

In God’s economy, worth comes from knowing Him and His love. That’s it. It’s not in how many Bible verses you can quote, or in how knowledgeable you are about the Old Testament, the size of your clothes, relationship status, family life, etc.

You’re a child of God through the blood of Jesus. That means that you are automatically completely pure, holy, and worthy in His sight. That means that when He sees (insert your name), He no longer sees sin. He sees a holy and chosen child of God. He sees all the amazing qualities He’s blessed you with. He celebrates over YOU. (Isaiah 43:25, 62:4, Micah 7:19, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Ephesians 2:20, Psalm 149:4, Zephaniah 3:17, all of Luke 15).

And you didn’t have to do a thing!

I ask that you would honestly look inside yourself and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you any area where you need this truth – “I am worthy.” Maybe stop right now and journal whatever areas come to mind. But allow God to take you there. We’re good at covering things up so we can do what needs to be done. But in order for us to truly know His love, we have to be willing to step into the light and accept the truth. John 3:20-21.

His love is unfailing.

The second point we need to grasp to truly rest is that He will never fail us.

I’ve been reading the Psalms lately in my morning devotions. Recently I came across Psalm 13. David opens up by being honest with God that he feels forgotten. He feels like God doesn’t care. He’s got enemies pursuing him, wanting to take him down. He is filled with anxiety. Then he says “But I trust in your unfailing love.”

Then I came across it again in Psalm 32:10: “…the Lord’s unfailing love surrounds the one who trusts in Him.”

It kind of tugged at me…“unfailing.”

I can fail, but He never will. Do you know what that means? That means that as a child of God, failure doesn’t have the final say.

Yeah, you can make mistakes. Yeah, you can do your own thing. Yeah, you can miss something He’s trying to tell you. Yeah, you’ll face consequences.

But it means His love is always there to get you back to where you need to be. And once you’re in His love, He works all things together for your good (Romans 8:28). His love won’t fail to give you above and beyond all you could ask or imagine (Ephesians 3:20). It won’t fail to get you to where you need to be (Proverbs 3:5-6).

You may be thinking “Yeah, His love never fails, but what about when I sin? What about when I miss His will? Can’t I walk away from His love? Then I would fail.”

The point is – His love is always there. Whether you sin or not (of course, we should never sin intentionally!), He’s right there waiting to bring you back to what He has for you. If at any moment you can turn back to Him and He promises to work it for your good, then what is failure?

So what does it mean to rest in His love?

If we are completely worthy just as we are, right now, then we can drop the need for perfection. We serve Him because of how much He has loved us, not because we are trying to earn His approval or that of others.

And if His love is unfailing, then we don’t have to fear the unknowns. The “what ifs” and being overly concerned with circumstances is pointless now, because we realize that His love won’t fail us. Ever.

Your only job is to come into agreement with what His love says. Will you do that?

Devotional reposted from sjcircuitboard.wordpress.com

Photo Credit: Roberto Nickson – Pexel – White Clouds