His Steadfast Love Endures Forever

I think as women, from time to time, we go through doubts and insecurities within ourselves on many subjects. A big one for me, and I think it’s fair to say also for many women is feeling unlovable—to others and even to God. I know in my walk with the Lord there have been times when it was hard to believe God could love me. This was partly because of old doubts and hurts from over the years, but also because when I would have a bad attitude or fail at things in life, even though I knew He promised me His love, I would feel I disappointed Him, and feelunlovable, because I’d failed.

I knew the Lord didn’t want me to feel this way, and one thing began to be clear to me, God has many beautiful promises in His word that are for us to hold onto, but the “short in the circuit” comes when we don’t claim, believe, trust and accept the promises as truth for our lives. Even though the believing part was hard for me, I knew I needed to make a decision to “accept” what His promises say about His love for me.

In looking up different scriptures on God’s love for us; one promise that stood out to me was: “His steadfast love endures forever.” Ps.136:1. This passage is repeated many times in the Bible, and I believe it’s because this is a message and a promise God wants imprinted on our hearts forever, through all the journeys of our lives.

His love is steadfast. Webster’s dictionary’s definition of steadfast is: firmly fixed, loyal, faithful, committed, devoted, dedicated, dependable, reliable, steady, true, constant, staunch, solid, trusty. Numbers.23:19 says “God is not a man that he should lie.” This is truth. Have we been let down by others in this life who we thought loved us? Jesus won’t change— He is the same yesterday, today and forever. His love for us is steadfast; regardless of what we do, we can’t change that. What a wonderful truth, we are loved in loves purest form!

But, there is more to this total picture…the scripture says this kind of love “endures”. To endure implies hanging in there through difficult times and hardship. Webster’s defines it as: To suffer (something painful or difficult) patiently. Suffer, undergo, go through, live through, experience, meet, encounter, cope with, deal with, face, suffer, tolerate, put up with, brave, bear, withstand, sustain.

So…what is God’s enduring love? He endures with us in our humanness, our brokenness, our failures, mistakes, doubts and fears; and He keeps on “keeping on” loving us (in spite of our failures). “God is love.” I John 4:16. He doesn’t just love us…he is love. To many, the thought of being unconditionally loved everyday is foreign; but, it is truth. It is His promise. At some point we need to say I will accept what you say, I will accept that you love me unconditionally, forever and ever—that’s every single day! He tells us in Jeremiah 31:3 “I have loved you with an everlasting love.”

It is time that I take a deep breath and breathe in this amazing love that Jesus so lovingly gives to us. His ultimate gift of love was the gift of His life for our sins. When I think of the cross, it’s a wonder that I find it so hard sometimes to believe how He loves me. His going to the cross said it all. He didn’t do it in vain; He did it so that every single day we would have this assurance:

“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. Thank you Lord.

Joanie Miller

 
Joanie is a writer of children’s books. She is a mother and grandmother. She lives in California.