Who, me?!
When you struggle with believing people love you (Hello, it’s me. –Adele, and also me), it can be easy to shift that unbelief to the Lord and therefore doubt His unwavering love for you. Maybe He loves all the other people, but not you.
But, here’s the thing (the thing you already know, at least theologically): the Lord is committed to His people, and if you are in Christ, that includes you.
I’ve known and professed that for years, but until going through Lauren Chandler’s Steadfast Love study (and workbook*) with the women in my church this winter, I hadn’t felt the reality of that truth, at least not to this degree.
Peep this staggering section:
“In Genesis 15, God ratified His covenant with Abraham. He employed a practice common in Abraham’s day. He instructed Abraham to cut several animals in two and lay them directly apart from each other on the ground, creating a path between the pieces. The custom required the parties to walk through the severed animals signifying, ‘May this be done to me if I do not keep the covenant.’ Instead of both parties walking through the pieces, only God (symbolized by a smoking fire pot and torch) passed through.”
Then LC (Lauren Chandler) asks us what Abraham is doing in Genesis 15:12. Answer (spoiler): He’s sleeping.
Then here’s the God-is-not-really-committed-to-us lie-obliterating part:
“Abraham was in the most vulnerable, helpless state when God made His covenant with him. And God didn’t make him sleepwalk through the animal carcasses. Instead, He alone tread the path declaring, ‘may this be done to Me, if this covenant is not kept.'”
Oh my heart.
God’s love for us—yes, us—is not too good to be true. It’s real. He’s committed. And He’s still saying, “I’m in this, no backsies.” He cannot be unfaithful to Himself and therefore He will not be unfaithful to His children.
A few paragraphs later, LC wraps up the day’s study like this:
“I want you to see that what He said He would do, He has done. There’s still more to come. All is not as it will be. We still struggle against sin. Death has yet to finally die. Pain remains a part of life. But we can trace the goodness of God in keeping His promises throughout history so that we can trust He will keep His promise to be ‘with [us] always, to the end of the age’ (Matt. 28:20) and that Christ has not left us. He will return (Acts 1:11).” (emphasis mine)
May this fuel our hearts to worship in spirit and truth, rejecting the lies that seek to convince us God could not or does not really love us. And may we believe—and stake everything on—His word above all else.
*I highly recommend the workbook. Coming from someone who doesn’t love workbooks in general, it’s a little pricey and completely worth it. Get it.
Sophie Miller 