Never???

It's 100% impossible for me to describe in words how much God has used music in my life the last 8 months. He has used it in so many different settings - playing & singing songs for worship on Sundays, listening to music during the day while working, friends & family sharing songs with me through Facebook, or even just having the radio on while driving from here to there. It has been amazing for me to see how God allows me to either hear or learn a song I've never heard before that is perfect for what I'm going through, or puts me in a situation where I'm listening to a familiar song & it hits me like it never has. Music can be so powerful, and I believe God chooses to use it in powerful ways.

Very recently, someone posted a familiar song on Facebook. A really good song, but one that I've heard innumerable times; a situation where I normally wouldn't take the time to listen again. However, I decided to click on the link...it brought me to tears as I read the words of the song while listening to it. I heard the song on the radio again today, and it just about hit me the same way. The song is called "One Thing Remains" by Kristian Stanfill. The part that hit me the hardest was the beginning of the chorus that says this: "Your love never fails, it never gives up - it never runs out on me."

Why did this hit me so hard? I thought about it, and I concluded that it's because we all know too well what the very opposite feels like. We have experienced at one time or another what it feels like for love to fail - for love to give up, to run out. This could be the same as the feeling of rejection I talked about in one of my previous posts - but it could also be something completely different. Think about it - not only have we inevitably experienced someone else's love failing us, but we all have been on the other side of this. We have all been guilty of our love failing someone at least one time in our lives...of our own love finally giving up on someone for one reason or another. We have all decided at some point along the way that our love has just finally run out for that one person. To clarify, I'm not exclusively talking about the romantic, feel-good, mushy kind of love, although that definitely falls into this category (it's probably safe to say that all of us have experienced that type of love fail us). But what I'm mainly talking about is the love that we are supposed to show one another as followers of Christ. The kind of love that is supposed to move me to put others before myself.

Why are these feelings so widespread? Why is this an experience that we all have in common? It's simple, really. The definition of Failing Love is:  Human. In fact, to be more accurate, I should really say that the antonym of love is human. Sin has utterly destroyed our ability to love others the way we should. Romans 3 tells us that because of our sin nature, nobody is good & nobody does good. While that doesn't speak specifically of love or our ability to display it, I would say it makes a pretty good argument for our inability, wouldn't you? You see, it's in our very nature as fallen, sinful people to allow our love to fail someone else - even those that may be closest to us. This doesn't always mean it was fueled by an intention to hurt - but the hurt is a result nonetheless. A failing love that manifests itself in so many ways: from someone you thought of as one of your closest friends talking about you behind your back, to a girlfriend/boyfriend/spouse telling you they love you one day & deciding they are done with you the next - and everything in between. This is why the aforementioned song hit me so hard recently, because the opposite of this is so foreign to us. "Your love never fails..." Never??? Like...ever? Not once? After the experiences we have all had, it's basically impossible to envision a love like this. It's just as impossible to envision myself experiencing a perfect love from someone else as it is to envision myself displaying a perfect love to another person.

But that's the awesome part - while the antonym of love is human, the very definition of love is GOD. Think about that...He's not just a "picture" of what love is like. He's not just a "metaphor" or "example" of love. God IS love...His very essence. It's one of His indivisible characteristics that make up who He is. If His love could ever fail, He would cease to be God. But while God is not just an example of love, He did show us what true love really looks like:

• 1 John 4:9-10 - "In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins."
• Romans 5:8 - "But God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

That is love; this is grace. That the God of the universe - the creator of all things - chose to love sinful, unloving, unlovable people...and sent His Son to die for us in order to offer forgiveness for our sins against Him. And once we place our faith & trust in Jesus for doing so, we can immediately experience His unfailing love & the grace needed to then display love to others. Experiencing His love, obviously, doesn't mean that I will never face hard situations or trials in life. In fact, I should count on just the opposite - because one of the manifestations of God's love for us is that we experience firsthand His strength in our weakness. John Piper speaks about this in his book Don't Waste Your Life: "Love is not Christ's making much of us or making life easy. Love is doing what He must do, at great cost to Himself (and often to us), to enable us to enjoy making much of Him forever."

The Psalms are full of incredible verses that speak about God's "steadfast" love...but I believe the apostle Paul describes the indescribable most appropriately:

Romans 8:35, 37-39 - "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? ...No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Once we are in Christ, nothing can separate us from His love; nothing can cause His love to fail - even my own failures, no matter how big or frequent. God's love is not dependent on me - it's dependent on Him...and God IS love. Unfailing, unchanging, absolute, boundless, constant, inexhaustible, reliable, steadfast love! "Your love never fails, it never gives up - it never runs out on me."  ...Never??? NEVER.