The unending, unfailing love of God

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ^©

But the lovingkindness of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him, and His righteousness to children’s children.
(Psalms 103:17 (NAS))

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;
his love endures forever.
(1 Chronicles 16:34 (NIV))

Both verses tell of the unending, unfailing love that God has for His creation, especially those who call upon His name in love and righteousness.

Don’t get this wrong! God loves everyone, and He does not wish any to perish. He shows unsaved people His love, but in many times that love goes unrecognized by the intended recipient. He does show His love to those who show Him their love. Perhaps it is the fact that they wish to express love in return that allows them to see the love that God pours out on them. He wants to bless us.

God’s love is not limited to only those who are on His “good side.” Anyone can receive God’s love. If anyone turns to Him and repents, then He will be waiting for them with love, grace and mercy that will never end. Isn’t that amazing?

We are limited by human knowledge and capacity and probably every single one of us has trouble grasping the infinite capacity that God has to love us. We cannot comprehend the unlimited love that God has for us and how that love manifested itself for our salvation in and through Jesus Christ. Just as the human mind has trouble with understanding the vastness of the mathematical concept of infinite, we are also limited in understanding the height, depth, and breadth of God’s love.

God is good! Have you accepted the vastness of that goodness and love?

Copyright 1998 – 2014 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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What is true for you?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ^©

Good and upright is the LORD;
therefore he instructs sinners in his ways.
He guides the humble in what is right
and teaches them his way.
All the ways of the LORD are loving and faithful
for those who keep the demands of his covenant.
For the sake of your name, O LORD,
forgive my iniquity, though it is great.
Who, then, is the man that fears the LORD?
He will instruct him in the way chosen for him.
He will spend his days in prosperity,
and his descendants will inherit the land.
The LORD confides in those who fear him;
he makes his covenant known to them.
(Psalms 25:8-14 (NIV))

God is good! He will provide for those who fear Him. This fear is a fear of respect, not a fear of punishment and retribution. God wishes for us to be in a relationship with Him, but He wishes it to be of our own decision. When it is our decision, it will be honest and true. If it were truly based on fear of retribution, then it would not be an honest yearning to be with God.

God will reward those who seek His face and wish to live after His own heart. If you are sincerely seeking God’s will, then God will allow you into His heart by revealing His Truth to you. His Truth will become your truth.

What is true for you?

Copyright 1998 – 2014 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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God gave us hope. He gave us His Son, Jesus.

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ^©

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good.
His love endures forever.
(Psalms 136:1 (NIV))

It has been over two thousand years since God sent His only Son into the world that He created.

In just a few days we will celebrate the worldly birth of Jesus as an infant. What better symbol of God’s love than a newborn baby. All of us have such high ideals and expectations when we see a newborn baby. We see the hopes of all the world for a perfect world. When we see a newborn baby, we tend to forget the troubles that we face in this world. We see a chance to begin anew. We see all of the hopes and aspirations of the world rekindled.

God is good.

God gave us hope. He has given us grace. He has given us peace. He has given us love that endures forever. The only sad part about this is that we have taken this gift and have rejected it through our sinful nature. As a result, humanity has been separated from God.

Thankfully, God sees a baby in the same way that we do. He saw a new birth of hope, grace, and mercy for all of mankind. He saw the world once again with great hope and high aspirations. He reached out through a baby – His own Son. He saved us from our sinful nature through an amazing gift.

He gave us His Son, Jesus.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.”
(John 3:16-21 (NIV))

This Christmas, please remember that the greatest gift has been freely given by God to each of us.

Copyright 1998 – 2013 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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Give thanks to the LORD

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ^©

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;
his love endures forever.
(Psalms 118:1 (NIV))

Give thanks when things are good.

Give thanks when things are not so good.

Give thanks when things are not good at all.

We must give thanks in all things for God is with us. He never leaves us. We may leave Him, but He will never leave us. God does not cause the pain and the suffering, but He is there in the middle of it. He is longing to take us and comfort us. He is waiting for us to turn to Him in these times.

I recently had the honor of meeting an extraordinary group of young men. These young men had all done something bad. They had fallen for the lies of the enemy and had fallen into traps of addiction and even worse things. During my time with them they taught me something. Even though they were seeking and learning, they taught everyone around them something wonderful. It is probably the best lesson that I have learned in a long time. I had professed to know this, but it took seeing these young men in action to realize just how good God is. In the eyes of society, these young men had done great wrongs, but in the eyes of God, we all have done great wrongs. In God’s eyes, I am no different from them. His love for all of us is great.

All of us have become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;
we all shrivel up like a leaf,
and like the wind our sins sweep us away.
(Isaiah 64:6 (NIV))

God had taken these young men whom society would shun and turned them into models of God’s love for us. Not only where they examples of God’s grace and mercy within their lives, they also reflected God’s grace and mercy to all whom they came in contact with. I expect great things from this group of young men, for God has done great things in their lives. These young men taught me to give thanks in a whole new light, for God truly is good.

God is good all the time, and all the time, God is good.

Give thanks !

Copyright 1998 – 2013 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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