Unchanging Love
The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.
1 John 2:17
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When I was in high school I played on the varsity tennis team. I spent many hours of my teenage years trying to improve my skills on four concrete courts located just two blocks from my home.
The last time I visited that city, one of the first things I did was drive to the tennis courts, hoping to watch others play and reminisce for a moment. But the old courts, so familiar to my memory, were nowhere to be seen. In their place was a vacant field, inhabited only by an occasional weed waving silently in the breeze.
That afternoon remains in my mind as a stark reminder of the brevity of life. One of the places where I expended some of my best youthful strength no longer existed! Reflecting on that experience later brought me to this truth, expressed by an aging King David: “The life of mortals is like grass, they flourish like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more. But from everlasting to everlasting the Lord’s love is with those who fear him” (Psalm 103:15-17).
We grow older and the world around us may change, but God’s love doesn’t. He can always be trusted to take care of those who turn to Him.
By James Banks
REFLECT & PRAY
In our changing world, we can always depend on our unchanging God.
Faithful Father, thank You for Your love that never changes! Help me to love You by serving You faithfully today.
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SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
In the middle of Psalm 103 a potentially dark subtheme surfaces: life passes by all too quickly (vv. 15-16). As David poetically responds to this sobering awareness, we might well expect his song to become one of resignation or despondency. Yet the psalm remains joyful from beginning to end. Is David in denial? No! He frames the psalm, and his whole life, with praise to God, beginning and ending with this phrase: “Praise the Lord, my soul” (vv. 1, 22). The truth of God’s goodness provides the platform from which David’s whole life becomes a song of triumph.
Our awareness that life is fleeting need not cause us to panic or sink into despair. Rather, it can remind us that our life is in God. We find joy and meaning in singing His praises.
As seasons change and we sense life’s transience, what questions come to mind? Do those big questions cause us to reevaluate our priorities? Are we finding joy and fulfillment in relationship with our Creator? Tim Gustafson
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