By David ReayThursday 9 Aug 2018LifeWords DevotionalsFaithReading Time: 2 minutes
Read Psalm 33:18
18 But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him,
on those whose hope is in his unfailing love (NIV)
The painter Vincent Van Gogh once said that while there is an ebb and a flow to the tides of the sea, the sea remains the sea. What might that have to do with faith and life? Simply this: that while life may throw a lot at us, God remains God. While our feelings towards God might surge and retract, God’s feelings towards us don’t change.
Given we are incurably self-absorbed, we tend to see life through the lens of our own feelings and circumstances. If the medical test results are good, then I praise God for his goodness. If my job disappears in some corporate restructuring then I lament the absence of God. In extreme cases it can become something like the old rhyme of he loves me, he loves me not.
The truth is that God’s love is, as our text reminds us, unfailing. Our circumstances change, but he doesn’t change. Our love strengthens and weakens but his love is constant. Not that he is some distant deity far removed from our pain and uncertainty. He is very much aware of it all and very much involved in it all. It is just that our own emotions don’t always register this reality.
Our life situations ebb and flow like the tides of the sea. Our awareness of God ebbs and flows like the tides of the sea. But just as the sea remains the sea, so God remains God, the God of unfailing love.
Blessings
David Reay