Devotions Archive

Archive: 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024
Search Archive

Love you for always

Wednesday, March 9, 2005

Psalm 145:8-14
The Lord is gracious and compassionate,
    slow to anger and rich in love.
The Lord is good to all;
    he has compassion on all he has made ...
Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
    and your dominion endures through all generations.
The Lord is faithful to all his promises
    and loving toward all he has made.


Robert Munsch wrote a famous little book, ostensibly for kids, called Love You Forever. Published in 1986, the book has sold over 15 million copies. I love to read this book to friends, to clients, to myself. I usually cry.

Listening to Robert Munsch himself read this story and sing the story's simple song, I feel how much I need God and appreciate God's love and never want to know what it's like to be shut off from him:

I'll love you forever
I'll like you for always
As long as I'm living
My baby you'll be

Since the beginning, when we overthrew his plan for us and reached too soon for self-knowledge, God prevented us from destroying ourselves. I go to the brink, look over, feel the dizzying temptation to hurl myself into the abyss. Then gently, he draws me away.

In his despair David cried out to God, "Against you, against you only have I sinned!" Whether it's adultery or over-eating, gossip or homicide, niggling arrogance creeping up the edge of my mind or full-blown pride, my sin is always the same: I don't listen to God, I choose my own way. The result might be unnoticeable in my world, but it's huge in God's heart. Once again he's broken.

I tend to measure my sin by the consequences to myself and people around me. But even that is just one more self-centered way of looking at it. How about my Father? When I close up my mind and do my own thing, what happens to him?

Can I take the chance of finding out? What will he say to me? I will only know the answer when we share quiet time together and I finally shut up and listen.

In that at-last-un-self-centered place I do NOT hear how bad I am, how awful my sin is, how much I have damaged myself and others around me. I do NOT hear from God what I too often might have heard from my parents, my teachers, my preachers, my boss, my husband, my wife, my self-righteous kids, my nosy neighbor.

I hear the words of Psalm 145. "I am gracious and compassionate with you, David. I am faithful. I am rich in love for you. Do not be afraid. As long as I'm living, my baby you'll be."

When I am broken, Lord, give me wings and let me fly into your arms.



";
Add      Edit    Delete


About Us | About Counseling | Problems & Solutions | Devotions | Resources | Home

Christian Counseling Service
1108 N Lincoln Ave
Urbana IL 61801
217.377.2298
dave@christiancounselingservice.com


All photographs on this site Copyright © 2024 by David Sandel.