“The eternal God is your dwelling place and underneath are the everlasting arms” – Deuteronomy 33:27

MOST OF US are accustomed with the saying, “There is nothing you can do that will make God love you less and there is nothing you can do that will make Him love you more.” It has become a clichéd statement that too many of us grow all too familiar with, nevertheless the power of it lies to be discovered by each one of us who dares to know God beyond the mere facts of knowing about Him.

Sometimes God allows us to find no joy in our circumstances until we find all our springs in Him. Have we not encountered phases when the good times last so short and the hard times for a long duration, wondering when the brighter times will occur again? Do you dread what lies ahead? Does the monotony wear you down? Is there anything on your horizon that breathes hope? We will not find joy, hope or peace by looking to what may or may not happen. God does not want us dependant on happenings whatsoever. They are not our compass or barometer and yet how so many of us pay too much attention to what they read. How often has the so-called ‘advanced’ weather forecastings proved to be quite the opposite? How often have we feared the future, forgetting that God will never abandon us or leave us to our own resources and yet He has always proved Himself faithful?

What makes all the difference in living is to know that despite all of our happenings, no matter how favourable or painful, Gods arms are underneath us, not just when we are consciously aware of pleasing Him, but also when we know our spiritual progress is poor. How fickle we can be in our love for others – and even in our love for God at times – but God’s love never fails. Oh, we have read and heard that a thousand times that His love never fails, but have we stopped whatever we’re doing just to be absorbed by what this incredible Truth means? His love NEVER fails; it neither wavers nor wanes. It is steadfast despite our waywardness. This is lovingkindness that doesn’t excuse our sin or our pursuit of it – and know that if we truly belong to God, the knowledge of wounding such love through our disobedience and wilfulness will sorely cut us to the heart with deep sorrow – “and Peter wept bitterly” after denying His Lord. God’s kindness will stagger and overwhelm us to brokenness, that even though we are eternally secure, our crime as sons of God is that we have sinned against heaven. We all soon encounter that look of deep penetrating love, a love that doesn’t reject us, but the kind that has us wondering how we could ever be disloyal to the King of kings.

No matter where we live, no matter what we’re encountering, no matter how rich, poor or average we may be, God remains our dwelling place and no matter to what depths we fall, He is there in it with us. It is when we’re in the throes of anguish that we know that such truths are not fables or something to make us feel optimistic, with the angelic choir in the background (to add emphasis) – no, no, this is fact that God is having us realise and mature in. What glorifies God is that we can stare whatever circumstance in the face and with bold confidence declare, “My Father has not only my back, He has me covered all around” as the hymnist penned:

Underneath me, all around me
Is the current of Thy love

God’s assurances are like a wall of fire around us, especially when we’re on the brink of despair; how the Holy Spirit lifts us up to look unto our Father Who infinitely cares for us and I use the word infinite because there is absolutely no limit to God’s attentiveness of us. How precious are those moments when God gently draws us to His side where all doubt, darkness and despair dissipate at the revelation of His heart toward us. No wonder the Psalmist said, “Your steadfast love is better then life” (Psalm 63:3). These are the joys of reconciliation with God; these are the benefits of knowing God that go way beyond physical blessings. Material blessings are child’s play. That we can walk with God in union and enjoy such communion! Is this not the highest aspiration we could ever reach for and attain? Is there anything else the heart could possibly wish for? Don’t we hear it resounded so clearly in David’s declaration, “Because the Lord is my Shepherd I shall not want”? That GOD is my inheritance is everything. Rightly does the Psalmist state, “All my springs are in You” (Psalm 87:7).

God will have all our hopes spring from Him, for when we have Him we have absolutely everything the heart could yearn for. So what, if God were to reduce us to where we see nothing on the horizon but Him – and such darkness, during in the process, is a concealed blessing waiting to be unwrapped. Our situation may be a perplexity to us and we are left to wonder as to how on earth it could ever be solved when all human agents utterly fail, but God – BUT GOD! His everlasting arms that support us in the floods and fires are what make those life-changing differences. You may feel you have nothing in comparison to the wealthy of the world, but when heaven takes a peculiar interest in you – my goodness, you can kiss such rubbish away.

O the deep, deep love of Jesus!
Vast, unmeasured, boundless, free,
Rolling as a mighty ocean
In its fullness over me.
Underneath me, all around me,
Is the current of Thy love;
Leading onward, leading homeward,
To my glorious rest above.

O the deep, deep love of Jesus!
Spread His praise from shore to shore,
How He loveth, ever loveth,
Changeth never, nevermore;
How He watches o’er His loved ones,
Died to call them all His own;
How for them He intercedeth,
Watcheth o’er them from the throne.

O the deep, deep love of Jesus!
Love of every love the best;
’Tis an ocean full of blessing,
’Tis a haven giving rest.
O the deep, deep love of Jesus!
’Tis a heaven of heavens to me;
And it lifts me up to glory,
For it lifts me up to Thee.

(Hymn: Samuel Trevor Francis)