From My Heart

Lamentations 3:22-24 The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness. “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”
We will get back to the love study tomorrow, but I wanted to take a minute to share from my heart. As we have been studying love- what it is and what it does, I have been confronted by my own inabilities and shortcomings. When broken down, characteristic by characteristic, it becomes so clear that even though I think I walk in love most of the time that I actually have a lot of room to grow. I think of the way I respond to my husband when he makes me mad. I know, I’m a pastor’s wife. I’m not supposed to get angry with my husband, or frustrated with my children. I ‘m supposed to be patient and kind all the time, right?  Wrong! Even as I am writing this morning, my three year old son has woken up early and interrupted the only quiet time I get to myself all day, and guess what? I have to fight to not be annoyed.
Today’s passage has been running through my head since last night. How thankful I am that the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. Regardless of my faults, flaws and problems, His love never ends towards me. Whether or not I choose to walk in love, when I am obeying Him and when I don’t listen to His voice, He never stops believing in me and showing me His unconditional, unfailing love. What a reason for me to be extra conscious of the love that I show to others! The next part of the verse says His mercies never come to an end, they are new every morning. The King James says His compassions fail not. I like to say, His mercies are new every moment. I once saw the word new defined as replacing or supplementing something of the same kind that already exists. Every moment of every day God replaces the kindness and forgiveness He already feels towards us with new compassion and understanding. The sympathy, concern and consideration that He shows us will never stop, because it’s not based upon our performance, what we do, or how we act, but rather upon His character, His promises to us, and the incredible love He feels toward us. Don’t believe me? Look at Romans 8:5 But God shows and clearly proves His [own] love for us by the fact that while we were still sinners, Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One) died for us. Even if we never received Him as our Lord and Savior, He would still love us. What an amazing thing to meditate on today!
The last part of our passage says “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.” Rather than focus on our shortcomings, we need to instead reflect on His goodness. When we concentrate on who He is instead of what we are, our natural response will be to try to be more like Him. For example I mentioned how I had to fight being irritated with my son this morning, but as I continued to explore the goodness of God, His compassion welled up on the inside of me. I was immediately quickened to repent and instead of being bothered and aggravated, I instead felt nothing but love and joy. I challenge you today to take some time to think about how wonderful God is to you. Meditate on His goodness, mercy and love and see if you extend His kind of love to the people in your life.