1. Unfailing…
In your unfailing love, you will lead the people you have redeemed. In your strength, you will guide them to your holy dwelling
Exodus 15:13
How amazing that the first time God’s love for us is mentioned in the Bible it has the adjective “unfailing’ before it. I could get stuck here for the whole series pondering God’s unfailing love. There are a further 38 instances of these words mainly found in that deepest and most personal collection of love songs to God, The Psalms.
God’s unfailing love is the source of so much for me and I will explore these things over the coming days but today it is a descriptor of how he leads me and all his people throughout our lives towards eternity with him.
God loves me with a love that doesn’t stop regardless of how I behave or respond to him. When my family, my friends, fail me and turn from me, he continues loving me. When I am struck by serious illness or struggle with circumstances that hurt me or send me spiralling into deep despair, he continues to love me. When I make mistakes, think evil thoughts, watch, or read material that is far from wholesome, enter into deliberate sin – he continues to love me.
Putting this verse into context we find Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt towards the Holy Land promised to them by God. Moses bursts into song after God has parted the waters of the Red Sea to provide dry land for the people to cross over. He has witnessed the drowning destruction of the Egyptian army as the waters once more flowed.
Moses realises that God’s love for his people was enough to save them from their enemy and lead them towards the promised land. He praises God as his Saviour, majestic in power, a warrior. He knows that there is no other like God – strong, awesome, and that God alone gives the victory over enemies and will bring his people to their “mountain of inheritance” (Exodus 15:17).
The unfailing love of their God was what sustained the Israelites despite their own failings as their journey continued into the wilderness and time and again, they complained against God and disobeyed him. That same unfailing love has sustained me through breast cancer, the loss of both my parents, loss of a job I loved, laryngeal cancer , and much, much more. His love will continue to sustain me and you, today, tomorrow, and through the years. His unfailing love is our source of salvation; our source of forgiveness; our source of sanctification; our source of comfort; our source of healing; and so, so much more…
Prayer: Lord, words fail me as I think of the unfailing-ness of the love you have for me. I am weak, my love is weak, and it fails so often. Yet your love never fails. When I wake in the morning your love is there. When I mess up numerous times across the day, your love is there. When I go to sleep at night your love is there. Amazing love, how can it be, that thou my God should die for me? (Charles Wesley).
Amen
Action: Today bask in the unfailing love of your God. Let it flow over you, into you, and guide you through whatever the day may hold for you.
Journal your thoughts…
