Last time we finished with The Jesus Storybook Bible and mentioned how the author, Susan Lloyd-Jones, summarizes this book and the whole Bible itself, with the phrase:

You see, no matter what, in spite of everything, God would love his children – with a Never Stopping, Never Giving Up, Unbreaking, Always and Forever Love. 1

That is quite an incredible phrase. Many of us would say we believed God’s love for us is just this unconditional. But if we were honest, we would have to admit we struggle, sometimes on a daily basis, to believe this as fully as we could.

We often talk about faith, about our belief in God, as our greatest challenge. But would not our conviction of just how much He loves us, of just how real His love feels to us, have to be a very significant part of our faith? How could this not influence how much we trust Him?

It makes sense, does it not, that this may be the difference between:

Trusting Him with some new challenge in our lives . . . or not?

Finding the courage to delve more deeply into our hearts than we have ever gone before . . . or not?

Surrendering something in this life we have placed far too much faith in . . . or not?

I don’t think we talk much about these things because they are so difficult. It is much easier to consider how loved you feel by another person, someone you can see, feel and touch; than God who is invisible. Although we can struggle with that too, can we not?

For those of us who are believers, there are times when we speak with confidence about our thoughts and feelings about God, about just how real He is. But there are many other times when we struggle. It is part of our fallen nature. And there are even times when He feels so far away, and has for some time, that we begin to wonder if we have just made all of this up. There . . . I said it.

And so, if we are really going to be honest, our struggle is a great one. I am not happy with it. I am, for sure, not proud of it. But what if this is just how much the Fall affected all of us?

We are stuck living in this fallen world and on some days it seems like the only world. Only by the grace of God did our eyes open to the truth, that once upon a time there was another world, a former world, that was so much grander. It makes sense to us now that there was a first world, and now a second, but there is no absolute way to prove this. Others can think we’re mad, and you know, they just might be right. But deep in our hearts we know better.

The saddest thing of all is that this whole story would not be complicated, would not be complicated at all, if we hadn’t made it so. We were the ones who rebelled, who thought we knew better, who wanted to be in charge of our own lives, who thought we could be. And we broke God’s heart.

But, you see, no matter what, in spite of everything we have ever done or ever could do . . . God will love us. He will love us with a never stopping, never giving up, unbreaking, always and forever love.

And because of that, there will always be hope.

Next time.

Sam

1  Jesus Storybook Bible, Susan Lloyd-Jones, Zondervan, 2007, page 36