Steadfast Love, Mercy and Faithfulness
Each day brings new mercies, joys, sorrows, successes, and failures, with mountains to climb and valleys to navigate. Although the valleys can be daunting at first blush, they can be part of our life's journey, bringing the most significant growth, healing, peace, strength, and stability. Whether hilltop or valley, God aids us in our understanding that the Lord is our good, good shepherd. His steadfast love never ceases.
“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.”
I find that whether it is a mountain I am to climb or a valley to navigate, this is where God's grace and mercy accompany me every step of the way.
The key is our relationship with God.
When we actively pursue God, getting to know Him by spending time with Him, reading His Word, inviting Him into our hearts, minds, and souls, or climbing the mountain and asking God for wisdom and strength, that is where we will get to know Him—trusting God in the valleys to guide us and remembering that as a shepherd, He knows the safest places to feed, rest, and restore our souls, and protect our hearts.
You might say, “That sounds wonderful, but you don't know my life. Despite successes, there have been failures, rejection, abuse, mistakes, sin, and judgment. Sometimes, I don't feel God's presence guiding, protecting, or restoring me.”
I get it, and sometimes I have felt the same way. Those are the times I looked to myself for what I needed rather than inviting God into those places in my life and trusting He will guide me and protect my heart. Left alone, I can conceive some of the most creative solutions but, ultimately, the most destructive. Leaning on my understanding, I can contemplate solutions that don't even have a problem yet. We end up exhausted, distraught, overwhelmed, isolated, and alone.
It takes surrendering our will to God and trusting Him to lead us through the spectacular and challenging places, where we will see His mercies and grace new each morning.
Years ago, I had an extraordinary woman in my life named Inez. She was my spiritual mom, mentor, adopted grandma, and a treasure to my family. Sometimes, I would be so upset about a circumstance or challenge that I would go and spend time with Inez. She would allow me to vent and carry on for a bit, and then she would hand me a plate of cake tops with a bit of icing, which was her signal to me: now listen. She helped me to see things through God's eyes. She would teach me how to change my perspective from me and my circumstance to God and His position. She taught me that I might be unable to change the circumstance, but I could determine my response rather than only reacting.
Focusing my eyes on God amid a challenge, I give God the ability to work in my life despite my circumstances.
It's interesting because sometimes, we are so focused on the challenge, pain, mistakes, sins, or failures that we lose sight of the path to a healthy solution or resolution and become stuck in our minds and emotions. Then, emotions become the driving force rather than God's love, grace, and mercy.
There are times when bad things happen to good people. When life happens in good, bad, and indifferent ways, the Bible says it will rain on the just and the unjust alike. Then there are the times when Satan, the enemy of our hearts and souls, is hunting us, searching for who he will devour. His job is to kill, steal, and destroy as many as possible, and he is good at it. Sometimes, he is content if he can keep our attention focused on anything other than God's plan for our lives. All these things happen. They do, but it's not what happens to us that matters. What we do and how we respond to what happens in our lives means everything.
Our relationship with God is what makes the difference. When hard things come up or a person has harmed someone I love, inside, I want to get revenge or put them in their place, act, and rain all of heaven and hell on them—you get the picture. With my emotions stirred up, there isn't a speck of peace found in my heart or anyone around me, for that matter.
But, when I stop and say God, my heavenly Father, your will not mine, the storm inside my heart and soul comes to a quietness that allows me to breathe.
He reminds me that His steadfast love never ceases, His mercies never come to an end, they are new every morning, and His faithfulness is greater than the storm.
He says to my heart, be still; I am with you. I am with those you love. I will guide you and give you peace, not as the world gives but a peace that is beyond your understanding.
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not be afraid.”
Receiving God's grace and mercy doesn't mean we won't struggle, fail, suffer, hurt, or cry. It means we won't go through it alone but with God, sometimes with Him carrying us and those we love to the other side of the storm.