God’s Love Suffers Long

 

God’s Love Suffers Long!

Today we continue looking at the nature of God’s love for us. Let’s begin right here:

“O give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; for His mercy and loving-kindness endure forever.”
(Psalm 136:1,AMP)

When I was meditating on this Scripture, the word “endure” attracted my attention. So I looked it up in the dictionary, and this is what I found:

“To experience and deal with something that is painful or unpleasant, especially without complaining.”

God’s love suffers along with us. When we go through unpleasant times, and life no longer makes sense, He is right there with us, feeling our pains and bearing up under the weight of our struggles. And even when His love for us no longer makes sense to us, He never gets angry and gives up on us. No! He sticks with us, gently soothing our hurt and bringing us to a place, where we sense His tangible love again in our heart. He never gives up on us. No, not even when we seem to be on the run from Him.

In another sense, God’s love suffers, bearing with us in our weaknesses. Our indifference towards Him makes Him suffer in His deep love for us. Since it’s the nature of love to give, when love’s affection and kindness is rejected, love suffers. God bears with all our failures, complacency, lukewarmness, and never gives up on us. He forgives us when we reach out in faith for it. And never ever fails or denies us. He says in Hosea 11:8, that He can’t give up on you, because His compassions for you are unlocked. This is the power of love!

“Love bears up under anything and everything that comes…and it endures everything [without weakening].”
(1Corinthians13:7, AMP)

God’s love for us never grows weak or stale. No!
His love for us is ever new. And there’s nothing anybody can do yo change this fact. There’s nothing His love can’t bear.

The psalmist said the Lord is compassionate, full of mercy and gracious toward us.

“The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and plenteous in mercy and loving-kindness.”
(Psalm 103:8,AMP)

The Lord is merciful. That is, He is readily forgiving. He is gracious. That is, He is leaning toward us with great favor and regard for us. The Lord is slow to anger. He is not easily angered. He is not irritable. Because He is full of mercy and love for us. And His love endures forever. His love suffers long.

This truth that God’s love endures forever is such an important truth, that you need to ingest it in your spirit. Because your relationships, responses and attitudes toward others largely depend on your understanding of the truth. Your understanding of God’s love directly affects your love life. For instance, if you understand that God’s love for you is enduring, you will be able to freely, without fear, reach out in faith and receive His forgiveness, and also forgive yourself, when you sin against Him. For you can only love yourself and others to the degree that you know you have been loved. And the quality of your love for others can only reflect what you believe is the depth of God’s love for you. You will bear with yours and others’ failures only if you know that God bears with yours. Else, you will have a critical, judgmental and condemning attitude towards yourself and others, in moments of failure.

Do you have a dream to live a life that’s reckless in acts of love for others?
Do you want to live a triumphant life, devoid of defeats?
If YES, then you need to be grounded and settled in your conviction of the unthinkable depths of God’s boundless and unconditional love for you.

“O give thanks to the God of heaven, for His mercy and loving-kindness endure forever!”
(Psalm 136:26,AMP)