Psalm 143:8 “Let me hear of your steadfast love in the morning, for in you I put my trust. Teach me the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul.” This episode talks about God's steadfast love and how we live like God wants us to live. Psalm 143:8 “Let me hear of your steadfast love in the morning, for in you I put my trust. Teach me the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul.”
Steadfast Love
Psalm 143:8 “Let me hear of your steadfast love in the morning, for in you I put my trust. Teach me the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul.”
Steadfast love, do you know what that means? I looked it up as I know it is good, but I didn’t know exactly what it meant. The whole point of this podcast is to examine scripture more closely, to really get an idea of what it is saying to us. This scripture verse starts off by saying, “Let me hear of your steadfast love in the morning, for in you I put my trust.” So, what is this steadfast love that we want to hear about? Steadfast means firmly fixed in place or immovable. Doesn’t that paint a nice picture of God’s love for us? It is firmly fixed in place, there is nothing we can do to get rid of His love. Sometimes we think that God must not love us anymore because we did something that was so bad, so unforgivable that God couldn’t possibly love us anymore. This is false thinking. This is just what the enemy wants you to think.
If you think that the Lord doesn’t love you then you won’t turn to Him in times of need. You will turn to things of tis world. Did you know that the word steadfast is used 127 times in the book of psalms. Apparently we are not the only ones that need the reassurance that God’s love is fixed and immoveable. Why is that? Why do we question God’s love? I ask that question a lot because it helps get our brains thinking. We see things we wouldn’t have seen otherwise. When we are reading the Bible, we can have a tendency to gloss over things that we hear because we don’t understand them or because we don’t agree with them. This podcast is examining scripture closely. I am trying to understand what it means and share that message with you so we can all grow in our understanding of God’s word. In order to understand it more deeply sometimes we need to ask ourselves why we do things. Why did the Lord need to use the word 127 times in just one book of the Bible? Why do we questions His love?
I think we question it because we have never known a love like it before. We have only know love from those of us that live in this broken world. Even if we had really good examples of love, they were not as good as the Father’s love. Our parents might have shown us a lot of love. However, was it unconditional love? Did you feel like you had to do something to earn it? Did you feel like you were loved no matter what you did, good or bad? Was it an everlasting love? Was it a love that was fixed and immoveable? I hope it was. I would like to think that I loved my kids unconditionally with no strings attached, but I am not sure they feel that way. Sometimes we can do our very best and yet the way others interpret our love can vary from how it is intended. God’s love is steady and unchanging. It is fixed and immovable. This is definitely something to pause and take in for a moment. Can you believe He loves you that much, all the time?
The next line says, I put my trust in you. Did you know it is safe to put your trust in the Lord? The Lord is always there for us. His love is steadfast and never leaves us. Therefore, we can trust Him in all that we do. The Lord never leaves us alone, He walks with us in the good times and bad times. We had a word of prophecy at prayer group last November that said, “ I am here. I am here with you wherever you go, whatever you do, I am with you. Know that I am your God. I will be with you in the good times and the bad times. Know that I am with you.” God is reaffirming to us that we can trust Him because He will always be with us.
The last sentence of the verse says, “Teach me the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul.” God is trying to teach us the way we should go by giving us the Bible, by giving us the Saints, by giving the priests, and the Pope, or if you are not Catholic, your minister or pastor. God is not wanting us to blindly follow those of the world. Sometimes what we are called to do may seem very foreign from what the rest of the world is doing. That is o.k. we should do it anyway. If you read about God’s chosen people in the Bible, they often did things that were different from those around them. God has always called His people to be set apart from the rest of the world. When you look at your life, is it set apart from others? Can you tell you are Christian by the way you are living? When Jesus comes back to earth, will He find faithful people?
If we want to live the way God wants us to live, Jesus simplified it for us. God gave the Israelites 10 commandments in the Old Testament. Jesus said in Matthew 22:37-40, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” All the Law and the prophets hang on these two commandments. If you are doing these first two then you will be doing the others. I know this sounds simpler then it really is.
I know some of you may be thinking, “love my neighbor? Have you met my neighbor?” No, I haven’t. But God has and He is calling you to love your neighbor anyway. He is even calling you to love those that are your enemies. He says in Matthew 5:44 “But I tell you, love your neighbor and pray for those that persecute you.” This is not easy and God knows this. However, it is possible with the love and power of God. God not only teaches us how to live, He gives us all we need to live the life He is calling us to live. He will never call us to do something and not give us everything we need to do it. If He is calling you to love someone that is hard to love, he will give you the strength to love that person. All we need to do is ask for it and then be open to receiving it. God is showing us how to live, we just have to be open to listening. Love is at the center of living a Christian life. It is not judgement, or condemnation. It is not our job to judge those that are not living the way we feel they should be. It is our job to love them where they are at.
When Jesus encountered people that were not living their lives according to the Lord, what did He do? Did He explain to them all the ways they were falling short? Did He scold them and condemn them for all they had done? No, He simply loved them where they were at. This is so important. Often times we feel it is our job to tell people that they are living in sin. This isn’t our job, our job is to love them and to share Jesus’ love with them. We can share the Gospel with them if they are open to it, but they won’t be open to it if we aren’t showing them that they are accepted and loved just as they are. Reading the stories in the Bible, especially the new Testament, can be a great place to turn when we don’t know what to do. Jesus gives us so many good examples. Jesus has taught us the way to go, it is now our job to follow.
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, show us they way you want us to live. Give us the strength and boldness to live that way even if it contradicts the way the world is telling us to live. We trust you Lord, and we are grateful for your steadfast love. Lord, help our love of you and of our neighbors be a steadfast. Show us what that means. We love you Lord and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow. Have a blessed day!