Years ago, I heard the late great Henry Blackaby say something along these lines: “The way God shows His love to you and me is outside our lives.” His love is not tied to the specifics of our daily lives. We tend to think the opposite, of course. We imagine that when God does something good, sweet, or unexpected for us, we will smile and say, “Isn’t life wonderful? I’m experiencing God’s love.” But what if tomorrow is different? What if none of those good, sweet, happy things happen to you tomorrow? What if your tomorrow is terribly difficult or sad, or filled with loss? What then? Does that mean He no longer loves you?
Our situations and fortunes in life rise and fall like the tide. You can’t evaluate God’s love based on your circumstances because your circumstances change all the time.
But something real happened in space and time, 2,000 years ago, something that was outside your life, and yet it intimately involves your life.
Jesus went to the cross for you. With great determination and deliberation, Jesus surrendered His lifeblood for you. Surely, He died for the whole world (1 John 2:2), but specifically, He died for you, little insignificant you, as if you were the only person in the world who needed saving. The apostle Paul tells us so clearly, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)
Someone has well said, “I asked Jesus how much He loved me, and He stretched out His arms and died.” And he died for you before you were ever born! Listen, there’s nothing that you can do to get God to love you anymore, and there’s nothing you can do to get God to love you any less. He just loves you! He has chosen to love you. He loves you when you’re good, and He loves you when you’re bad. He even loves you when your faith fails as Peter’s did that unforgettable night when he denied three times that he knew Jesus at all. God loves you! And, His love is LOYAL.
When Jeremiah writes, “the Lord’s loving kindnesses indeed never ceases,” he uses three little Hebrew words, lo, lo, lo, which actually means “no, no, no.” His loving kindnesses indeed never, never, never, ceases and His compassions never fail.
We all hate to overuse or trivialize the word “awesome.” But here is something absolutely, undeniably awesome. You know all of these qualities of God’s love, compassion, and mercy that we’ve been talking about? Well check this out: They are NEW every single morning. Every morning when you open your eyes on a new day there is a fresh, untapped, undiminished, undiluted, immeasurable supply of grace, kindness, and tender compassion. And it is there for you.
When Jeremiah quit listening to the spin doctor and lifted his eyes to heaven, his whole perspective on life changed.
Regardless of your circumstances, God is still good. In Zephaniah 3:17, the prophet sings,
“The Lord your God is in your midst, A victorious warrior. He will exult over you with joy, He will be quiet in His love, He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy.”
That’s God! So, no matter what you’re facing in life, no matter how bad the circumstances, God is still good.
You just need to wait for Him, and remember that He doesn’t work on your timetable; He works on His timetable. So, wait for Him, and keep seeking Him. As Jeremiah told us (in his better moments), “The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the person who seeks Him.” And here’s something to remember: Waiting is never passive. It isn’t counting flowers on the wall and playing solitaire till dawn. Waiting on God is active. As I wait for Him, I seek Him with all my heart and soul.
You are no doubt familiar with the name Charles Lindberg, a very famous person in American history. As a daring pilot, one of the things that Lindberg did was take on the daunting task of flying the first solo flight from New York to Paris across the Atlantic Ocean in a little plane called The Spirit of St. Louis. This was 1927, and no one had ever attempted such a thing or achieved such a distance. The little plane went 100 miles an hour, which meant that the journey would take him 33 and half hours—if he could actually make it.
The plane didn’t have any of the sophisticated instruments that even the most basic planes carry today. But Lindbergh had a compass, probably a Thermos of coffee, and a general idea of where he needed to go.
Relatively early in the flight, however, he ran into trouble when the plane entered a bank of storm clouds, choked with moisture. When he noticed the condensation on the wings begin to freeze, he knew he was in a life-or-death dilemma. Should he turn back and end his quest? What would he do? If he didn’t come up with something quickly, the fragile wings would freeze over and he would end up in the Atlantic.
In the midst of this critical turmoil, Lindbergh had a moment of inspiration. Suddenly pulling back on the stick, he put his little silver monoplane into a steep climb. Up and up he went with the clouds still surrounding him and blinding him. Then, in an instant, he broke through the dark ceiling into dazzling sunshine under a deep vault of faultless blue.
Lindbergh must have smiled in that moment, remembering an old truth he already knew. When you’re in the fog, when you’re in the storm clouds, if you will point your nose skyward, if you will keep going up, you will find that the sun is always shining.
We all walk through times of disappointment, heartbreak, and pain. And in those moments, a real devil who really hates you will come to you in the night, and try to spin your circumstances in the worst way. “You can’t trust God,” he will say. “He doesn’t love you. He won’t see you through.”
In that moment, you need to pull back on the stick of faith and go up, up, up, up until you see the Son in all His radiance and love, until you get your eyes on Him again, the God who loves you, the God who is faithful, the God who is worth it all.
Excerpt From The Devil’s Newsroom, Chapter 4: Spinning Your Circumstances
About the Author:
Jeff Schreve is the Senior Pastor of First Baptist Church Texarkana, a position he has held since February 2003. In 2004, he founded From His Heart Ministries with the mission of spreading the Word of God and reaching people across the nation and around the world. Before joining First Baptist Texarkana, Jeff served on staff at Champion Forest Baptist Church in Houston, Texas. Jeff holds a degree in Business Administration from the University of Texas at Austin and after twelve years in the business world, in response to God’s call to ministry, Jeff transitioned from the business world to full-time preaching. He earned a Master of Divinity degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in 2000 and went on to complete a Doctor of Ministry degree at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in 2014. Pastor Jeff’s journey in ministry has been supported by his wife, Debbie, whom he met in the Singles Department at Champion Forest Baptist Church in 1985. They married in 1986 and have since been blessed with three daughters, two sons-in-law, two granddaughters and three grandsons. Through his pastoral leadership and the work of From His Heart Ministries, Pastor Jeff continues to impact lives both locally and globally, sharing the message of Christ’s love and grace.
Connect with Jeff:
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