Enduring Love

… His anger is but for a moment, His favour is for life; weeping may endure for a night but joy comes in the morning

(Psalm 30:5, NKJV)

One of the wonderful and breath-taking scenes of the world, is looking at a landscape that carries mountains and valleys.  There are places where one notices a number of hills laid out as if in a pattern and this is beautiful to behold.  When we however look at mountains that are so high that we cannot see the top clearly, we stand in awe and wonder of God’s creative work.  The higher the mountain, the lower the valley looks adding to the wonder of the sight.  It is the contrast in the height above and the ground below, which makes for a number of tourist sites.  All this speaks of the great and mighty creator of them all, lovingly giving us opportunities to grasp a sense of His unsearchable creativity.  Beloved, our daily lives and interactions with others reflects a lot of ups and downs.  There are times when friendships and connections are all working well and there are other times when things are not going so well.  The stability and future of our connections is dependent on how we respond to the high and low seasons.  Great friendships have been destroyed by a single argument or misunderstanding and the individuals never reconcile again.  Anger is a bad master and when we hold it in our hearts, it could steal from our lives the beauty of previous healthy and helpful connections.  No wonder the bible warns us to keep away from anger as it only leads to evil (Psalm 37:8). 

Our reference verse carries reference to contrasting times in our lives.  It starts by telling us that God’s anger is just for a moment.   As human beings, we fail God in so many ways, if we were to be judged against His righteousness none would stand (Romans 3:23).  His word says that we all like sheep have gone astray, (Isaiah 53:6) leading ourselves from His presence.  Even with this, God does not behave like we do, holding anger as a weapon for justification.  Our Father lovingly understands our weaknesses and so does not remain angry.  His anger is for a moment but His love for us is for a lifetime.  Beloved, if God was to act in anger as we do, who could stand it?  Our God is a consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29), He is holy and righteous, a purity that we can never reach.  Given our frailties, He would be justified to punish us, but instead we get His mercies.  He looks at us in mercy, picking us up in His arms of love again and again, He is never giving up on us.  As believers, we are called to be like our Father, forgive others as we understand that we too fail.  While we shall experience the anger emotion, we are reminded to be careful that in our anger we do not sin (Ephesians 4:26). 

Keeping with our reference verse, we see the contrast of periods of sorrow and weeping, versus seasons of joy.  There are times when we go through difficulties and all seems dark, we could even feel forsaken but this is not our truth.  God never leaves us alone and after the darkness there is light which could only come from the mercies of God.  When we are passing through these heart-wrenching times, may we be reminded that in the end there will be light.  Jesus told us that He is the light of the world and so whoever follows Him will not walk in darkness (John 8:12).  Brethren, it is possible that in the natural, we perceive darkness but our reality in God is that we have the light, Jesus Christ.  May this be our focus so that despite our situation, we choose to always trust God for a new beginning, a light coming through the darkness and pain being replaced by joy.  No matter what we are walking through, may we keep our eyes on the finishing line when the seasons will change for our benefit, our blessing.

Thoughts:

What season are you in?

When have you seen God’s mercy change the season for your good?

How do you consciously wait for the contrasting season?