A Reliable Love

We depend on things and people to be reliable in life.

We expect our automobiles to start.

We expect the lights to turn on and off.

We expect people to be reliable.

We like reliable!

And when life turns unreliable, it gets ugly.

A personal story:

I once was married to a woman who had a drug problem and I thought it was well behind her.  At seven years of sobriety she relapsed and my life turned upside down overnight.

Once, in the early days of her relapse she asked if I could get her a hamburger.  I was gone less than ten minutes and when I returned she was not in sight. 

Another time she called and said that she had a flat tire at a certain intersection in Waco, TX and asked that I come and help her.  Of course she was not there, and later I discovered that this was a ploy to get me out of the house so she could come and take some things to a pawn shop to finance her drug habit.

I wanted to be a trusting soul, yet time and again she proved unreliable.

People sometimes prove unreliable.

And that brings us to God and thoughts about his reliability.

God is reaching out to us with a tender and intense love.   Do we need proof of the reliability of God?

Listen to this:

I will never leave you or forsake you.  

~Hebrews 13:5

The steadfast love of the Lord never fails. 

~Lamentations 3:22

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted.  He rescues those whose spirits are crushed. 

~Psalm 3:18

For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord.  Plans for your good, and not for harm.  I have a future and a hope all mapped out for you.

~Jeremiah 29:11

Can anything ever separate us from the love of Christ?  … Overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, the one who loves us.

~Romans 8:35-37

Here is what I gain from all of this.

~God is always there for us. 

~God loves me as I am and not as I should be.

Brennan Manning in The Furious Longing of God asks this most probing of questions.

“Do you honestly believe God likes you, not just loves you because theologically God has to love you?” 

That is an amazing example of the reliable side of God.  He’s there for us at every turn, every downturn, and every nuance life throws our way. 

He is reliable.

He never changes.

He is God.

Only believe

Please Watch this

Brennan Manning

The Reliable Love of God

A Prayer for All of Us

God

In a world of so much deceit and hypocrisy, we want to know ‘are you reliable?’

Your word says you are.

The words of others tell us you are.

Good and meaningful books and authors say you are reliable.

And so we reach out

We take small steps toward you

We test the waters

We need a reliable God.

Amen

P Michael Biggs

Offering Hope

Encouragement Inspiration

One Word at a Time