Moving Forward: Faithful – Ever Faithful

by Lisa Allgood, Executive Presbyter

Give thanks to the God of Heaven, for His steadfast love endures forever. – Psalm 136:26

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In this the week after Labor Day, getting ready for school years and fall events and back to regular schedules, I read this Psalm and had to wonder – is this the Psalm you skip through, too?

Yeah, yeah, got it – His steadfast love endures forever.

No – wait. His steadfast love endures forever.

Forever as in – never ever ending.  Outlasting all of us, and all we are so proud of, and all we (believe we) have accomplished on our own. Forever as in eternal, without beginning or end, before time and in time and is time.  Forever as in despite our puny little lives and needs and rants and…

For He is good. He is God above all gods (including all the little ones we make for ourselves).
He alone does great wonders (we usually make mistakes).

He is Creator God (we just use His creation).

He is God of Miracles (we don’t even see or acknowledge most of them).

He is Redeemer God (we all need redemption, day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute).

He is God Who Provides (we rarely say thank you deeply enough).

He is God Who strengthens and loves and provides grace and mercy to His fallen people. (Yes).

Exodus 34:5-8 is a powerful way to see who God is.

 “Then the Lord came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the Lord. And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.” Moses bowed to the ground at once and worshiped.”

This is who our God is.  Our God is abounding and keeping.  His love for us, His care for us, is not just enough, or at a minimum, and doesn’t diminish because of who we are.  We, my friends, are not that powerful. We, too, should be bowing down and worshipping – a lot.  A lot more than we do.

His steadfast love abounds. His love has no end.  No matter what we do in and outside of our churches. It goes past the busyness of the fall season.  It is still here with us, and will be forevermore.