Steadfast Love
“We love him, because he first loved us.” 1 John 4:19
How steadfast is your love for us, but God, why will we not be steadfast in our love for you? This is what I wrote one day to the Lord in the notebook I keep that is dedicated to Him. Oh, how my heart breaks that the Lord would create us, love us, bless us, provide for us, have mercy upon us, send Christ to the cross to atone for our sins, forgive us when we repent and turn to Him through faith in Christ, invite us into a relationship with Him through Christ now and forever when we deserve hell apart from Him forever instead, teach us, heal us, have compassion upon us, extend grace to us, draw us to Himself, deliver us, transform us in preparation for eternity, give believers who will receive His gift His very Spirit, and so much more – and look down upon us from heaven and see this. A Creation in large part that is so wrapped up in itself, so filled with wickedness and pride, so rebellious that it will do nothing more nor less than lick its chops at its endless pleasures and debauchery, ever exalting itself in its sickening depravity and then for some to have the audacity to wave a magic wand at Him with the arrogant expectation that He would pour down from heaven blessings before turning their backs to Him once again and scurrying away! How many of us have our hearts and lives turned to God? How many of us steadfastly love Him in our beliefs AND actions?
Steadfast love? It is His. He has it. But are we not commanded to have it also? Are we not commanded by the Creator of the universe to love Him with all our hearts and souls, to live in devotion to and adoration of Him? But where is our steadfast love? We have steadfast love, you know. Some of us have it for Him, others do not. We steadfastly love and adore what we will. Some are passionately committed to Him and His magnificent ways, as hard as they are to the flesh that must deny itself to follow Christ, and some of us are passionately committed with undying steadfast love for the things, people, the wealth of this world’s temporal treasures.
My heart grieves because if we really comprehended who He is, that He is the only true God, that His Son is the only Savior of this world, if we really grasped His majesty, magnificence, sovereignty, omnipotence, omnipresence, glory, righteousness, holiness, the beauty of His presence, and the steadfast love and relationship He offers those who repent and turn to Him through Christ, we would fall on our faces in repentance, turn to Him with all our hearts, devote ourselves utterly to the Lord of Lords, King of Kings, and live to bring Him glory forever. Are you listening? Is He drawing you to Himself? Do you have a steadfast love for the Lord?