The Riches of Your Love

We sang a song in church recently that went something like this…

“I’m running to Your arms, running to Your arms,
The riches of Your love will always be enough.
Nothing compares to Your love.”

I’m singing , swaying, eyes closed, smile on my face knowing my life consists of a nicely furnished, air conditioned home with a sweet husband and a monthly retirement check arriving right on time to meet all our needs. We have healthy bodies, good health insurance. I have great kids, our family has a great relationship with each other, I have wonderful friends…you bet I’ll run to Your arms. The riches of Your love will always be enough.

Yet an image of a beneficent God, arms outstretched, broad smile reaching across His kind face did not come to mind. I see that often but that day, an image of two friends from the past came to mind.

One had three kids, twelve and under. She walked in from teaching school one Friday and her husband was packing a suitcase. “Where are you going?” she asked. “I’m leaving. I don’t love you anymore.” And he walked out of her life forever. She never saw it coming. Blindsided.

The other had a long marriage, grown children, a beautiful home filled with beautiful things and a very shrewd husband who also left her for another after obtaining a very shrewd lawyer who left her with very little. Taken to the cleaners, at an age when most retire.

What if your world has shattered? Are the riches of His love….enough?

If your faith only works when things are good, it’s useless. It has to work when things are disastrous as well. Joy and peace and a sense of security have to kick in then too for you to truly know this whole relationship is supernatural, to know that you are not alone, the Spirit of God lives within you and is reproducing His character in you. You cannot fake it when times are bad. He’s either there or He’s not.

In the NLT, Psalm 23 reads, “The Lord is my shepherd I have all that I need. He lets me rest in green meadows, he leads me beside the peaceful streams.” But it also says, “Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid for you are close beside me. Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me.”
The Lord is my shepherd leading me through green meadows and peaceful streams and the Lord is my shepherd when I walk through the darkest valleys. And I am able to be unafraid because I know He is close beside me and He will give me tangible evidence of his presence.

We hit a disastrous pothole whether by our choosing or someone else’s and sometimes we act like He’s checked out. Yet He is still our shepherd. Right now however, He’s leading us through the darkest valleys. Interesting that it says through green meadows and peaceful stream he leads me but through the darkest valley, I won’t be afraid because you are close beside me. And isn’t that the way it is? We may know he’s definitely there during the good times, but man, during the bad, we draw so close, we are pressed in so hard, we are like white on rice.

Daniel knew the green meadows and peaceful streams. A high official in the king’s court, he acknowledged God’s presence in his life at least three times a day by bowing to worship Him. When he was accused of disobeying the king’s edict and threatened with death by being torn apart by lions, nothing changed. He still prayed three times a day. God led him into the lions’ den and sat with him through the long night.

I’m reading The Hiding Place. You could not find a kinder, more giving family who loved God with all their hearts. It permeated every aspect of their lives. Their response to prison and a concentration camp was so totally God. They, especially Betsie, never wavered in their knowledge of His presence. The tangible evidence was their Bible that the guards never found and the words in it that brought incredible comfort and light to everyone they came in contact with. He was their shepherd through the darkest valley known to man.

If He is sovereign, then he knows the final chapter. There is purpose and meaning even if we never get the intervening chapters. He is a shepherd that has the capability of giving us all we need as we follow him along the path He’s chosen or allowed…whether by green meadows and peaceful streams or through darkest valleys.

Stay close. Stay tuned in. Listen. As a habit of life, constantly recognize who he is …worthy not only of our praise but our obedience in following closely and obeying his voice.

Oh for grace….to trust you more.