Isn’t it wonderful when a person you love and admire doesn’t change? They continue to be nice to you from the time you first met them until the present time. After many years they stay the same. Or if you fall in love with someone you come to marry them and live with them and after all these years they continue to be nice to you. It doesn’t matter either if you’re in a lot of stress or in a bad mood or having a rough time in your life, they continue to be good to you. Even when you’re not so nice yourself, they continue to be nice to you. They understand you. They accept you, simply put, because they love you.
This is what I love about the Lord. He never changes in His love for us. The Bible tells us that,
Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and forever. {Hebrews 13:8}
Not a lot of us really believe this though. We know about this scripture and we say we believe it, but in practice a lot of us live in fear of God’s wrath instead of living in expectation of His love for us.
When we fall, when we sin and whenever we come short of the glory of God, instead of running to Him, we run away from Him. We don’t want Him to know we’ve messed up again. So rather than be honest and make ourselves clear with Him, so we can continue to have an open relationship with Him, we hide things from Him. This is how a lot of us end up being unhappy in this life. We keep our sorrow and sin and sadness from the Lord instead of talking to Him about it. We’re always ready to believe that He’s going to condemn us and point fingers at us, instead of expecting Him to understand us and put His arms around us. Instead of believing truly that Jesus Christ will never change in His love for us, we doubt it. We’re afraid of being open to Him.
God’s love is so great for us. His love is so great He gave His life at the cross, so that He can overcome the principalities and the powers of this world for our sake. He overcame hell and the grave to give us life everlasting with Him. He died so that we can turn around and find our power in Him and overcome in this life. Not only do we have eternal life with Him to look forward to, but right here in this life we can be victorious over every problem and every sin and every trial that we go through. We can live, we can be happy, and we can be triumphant everyday, because His love is great for us.
Apostle Peter betrayed the Lord three times. Before Jesus Christ was betrayed by Judas, Peter swore up and down that he would never be offended with the Lord, that he would even die for him if it would come down to that. The Lord knew ahead of time that Peter wasn’t going to be able to live up to the desire he had to die for the Lord when the time came. The Lord knew that Peter was going to let himself down, not the Lord mind you, but himself. Because the Lord knew what was coming, He didn’t have to be let down by Peter. He knew Peter’s strength and weaknesses and so He warned Peter. He told Peter that even before the rooster crows before dawn he was going to deny Him three times. We know the rest of the story, how Peter did deny the Lord three times and was so adamant about denying Him before the people that were singling him out, we wonder what happened to his faith. Peter was so gripped with fear for his own life that he totally forgot about his love for Jesus. He simply was concerned about his own welfare. He wanted to live, he didn’t want to die. He had to do what he felt he needed to do to survive, and so he denied the Lord. But later on when he remembered what the Lord had said to him and he realized what he had done, the Bible tells us that Peter wept bitterly. He felt so bad about what he had done in denying the Lord that he wept.
The Lord knew exactly how Peter was going to feel. He knew this was going to be a big blow to Peter. That’s why the Lord had to pray for Peter, that his faith in the love of God will not fail him. The Lord went ahead and comforted Peter even before He was denied by him. The Lord told Peter,
Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. {Luke 22:31-32}
That’s why when we sin and come short of the glory of God, the Lord knows already how we feel. His love for us is great and He understands all things about us. He knew ahead of time what we were going to do. He’s not going to point a finger at us or condemn us. He’s going to love us even more when we come to Him, because He understands us. His desire is for us to believe in His great love for us, that it’s unchanging. He loves us when we’re good and He loves us just the same when we’re bad. He wants us to always remember that His love never changes. We don’t need to pretend He doesn’t know what we’ve done. It’s like we get this thought that if we don’t talk to the Lord about something we’ve done wrong or something that we feel bad about, it will continue to be a secret. We think He will never know. As long as we don’t talk to Him about it everything is going to be all right. But it’s not true, because nothing is hidden from the Lord. He knows everything we’ve done and said from the minute we were born on this earth even until the day we take our last breath. He knows even what we’re going to do in the future, whether we’re going to continue to live for Him or end up denying Him in the end. So trying to hide and pretend things away from the Lord is not a very good idea. The sooner we confess our sins to Him, the sooner we will feel His goodness and His love for us, and the sooner we will feel better. There is nothing that we can ever do that can separate us from His love. If we come to Him, if we talk to Him and trust in His love for us, that is when everything is going to be all right.
God’s love never changes. We need to believe this with all of our hearts. He loves us so much and He understands us. To please Him is to believe in His love for us, no matter what happens. Even in the midst of all trials and tribulations, we need to keep believing in the love of Jesus. We owe it to Him to keep believing in His love for us, because He gave His life for us. He wouldn’t have died for us if He didn’t love us. This is the faith that He is looking for from each and everyone of us, that we will continue to come to Him no matter how bad things look. That we will continue to believe that He loves us, and talk to Him about it because He wants to help us. He never changes. He will never stop loving us no matter what happens. He is unchanging.
For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. {Romans 8:38-39}
It is of the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. {Lamentations 3:22-23}
And the LORD, he it is that doth go before thee; he will be with thee, he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed. {Deuteronomy 31:8}
And, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen. {Matthew 28:20}
Prayer
Lord Jesus thank You so much for Your great love for us. Thank You for giving Your life at the cross at Calvary to set us free from the power of the darkness and the principalities of this world. Thank You Jesus, that You will never leave us nor forsake us.
Please Father, please give me great faith in Your love for me. That no matter what happens, in any storm or heartache or trial and tribulation, I will come to you and I will keep believing in Your love for me. Help me to come to You and talk to You and ask for Your grace and forgiveness whenever I sin and come short of Your righteousness. Help me not to hide my sins from You. Help me to believe in Your great love and confess them to You. I pray this Father, in Your most wonderful and loving name, Jesus. Thank You, Father. Amen.
