Love doesn’t always pull through the way we’d like. I promise that this week, some very good things or people you love will fail you. How will you respond?
How will you respond when you go out to eat at your favorite restaurant and they no longer serve the world’s best wedge salad?
How will you respond when your kids fail to appreciate how much you do for them and they test your patience for the 34th time that day?
How will you respond when your boyfriend isn’t replying to your messages?
These disappoint and hurt. But, the failure of love isn’t the problem; rather, our faulty interpretation of the failure is the problem.
We interpret a dinner menu that no longer serves our favorite item as another cruddy experience in a day gone bad because God must be occupied elsewhere, unaware of our needs, or just plain disgusted with us so he strikes the wedge salad from the menu to punish us. Faulty interpretation.
We interpret children misbehaving as a reflection of our own parenting mistakes and fly off the handle with illogical and inconsistent discipline all because we’re selfishly afraid.
We interpret others’ behavior toward us convinced that we are victims.
The more those kind of love failures hurt your heart, the more you’ve attached your hopes and dreams to loves in this life that may be good, but never aren’t supposed to be the ultimate. You’ve lost perspective and priority, making something bigger than it is supposed to be in your life—even bigger than God, at least in your interpretation.
You’ve just told God that he’s a failure, not doing his job, and you want to replace him with … a wedge salad.
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, faced with a life-or-death decision, wouldn’t give up on God. The men were commanded to worship an idol, or they’d be thrown into a fiery furnace and burned to death. That didn’t scare them. They refused to worship an idol.
“If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it … we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up” (Daniel 3:17,18). That’s love, isn’t it! That’s loyalty and priority and putting God first—no matter what. And why? Because of God’s never failing love for them.
“The God we serve is able to deliver us.” From the fire. From the guilt. From the heart that is broken. From the loneliness. From the people that let you down. Even from yourself. God’s never-failing love never quits, never stops, always forgives any sin of any sinner who needs him, always.
PRAYER: Dear God, we all need love. I need love, and sometimes look for it in the wrong places. Take me back in your grace, and as you keep loving me I pray that I will love you more and more. Amen.
FURTHER MEDITATION: Ready for more love in your life that will not fail? Find this video on YouTube and take 5 minutes a few times this week for Bible inspiration: Driven By a Better Love.