God Never Fails
If God is Love, and Love NEVER fails, then God NEVER fails. In our human condition, we doubt and fear and wonder sometimes where God is and when we’re going to hear from Him or see Him act. But the first part of 1 Corinthians 13:8 reminds us….
[8] Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will be done away with. Where there are various languages, they will cease. Where there is knowledge, it will be done away with.
https://bible.com/bible/206/1co.13.8.WEBUS
Just as I did yesterday with switching words in Genesis from God to Love, now I’m going to switch the famous verses known for defining what love should be from Love (Charity in KJV) to God. You see, God knows our form and would never ask us to do anything He would not do. So….
1 Corinthians 13:4-8a CSB
[4] God is patient, God is kind. God does not envy, is not boastful, is not arrogant, [5] is not rude, is not self-seeking, is not irritable, and does not keep a record of wrongs. [6] God finds no joy in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth. [7] God bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. [8] God neverendsfails.
https://bible.com/bible/1713/1co.13.4-8.CSB
Line by line, we can see God’s personality in these behaviors Paul encouraged the Corinthian believers to follow. From the garden until the end of time as we know it, and into eternity, God’s whole purpose is for us to walk with Him, side by side, obeying Him by imitating the behaviors He knows will bring blessings.
When we are patient (a fruit of The Spirit, so we get it directly from God), we bring peace to our lives and even our bodies. This message is to me as much as anyone because age seems to be making that harder for me. Maybe partly because of the many things there are to become impatient or irritable with these days (like AI customer service that won’t connect you to a living human). But I know I don’t like the way I feel when I get impatient, even if I have a good reason for it.
When we are kind, we can see God in our behaviors and note how it changes people. I try to make a habit of calling managers to compliment good service because I know they are overwhelmed with complaints. Years ago, I watched a manager lumber out to my vehicle at a Sonic when his employee sent him at our request. I could tell he was bracing for the worst. After sharing my gratefulness for the attentive and friendly server we had, it literally looked like he was a foot taller as he walked back to the restaurant standing up straight and smiling with confidence. The image is forever etched in my memory as an encouragement to bring that type of kindness whenever I can.
When we refuse to envy or be jealous or rude, we stop adding to the stress and chaos of a world with too many trying to survive without God and His attributes.
When we are careful not to be boastful or arrogant, we leave room for God to shine instead of us. We know that pride goes before destruction, and a stuck up (haughty) attitude before a fall, so we save ourselves from those disasters as well. Remember the letters in EGO can stand for “Edging God Out.”
On the “not self-seeking” line, I found a lot of different wording, including that love does not seek its own way. When I switched that one to God, I was like, “Wait a minute. God does seek His own way and His will because He sees the future and knows what’s right.” So, in His case, seeking His way is not a bad thing. But also, being self-seeking is more like ONLY thinking of yourself. We all know people who don’t seem able to see how their behaviors affect others but can always see how others affect them. Without natural empathy, those are the ones whose love (Godliness) is turning cold as a result of sin.
When King David thought about God’s choice to not hold his record of sins against him, he said that God had separated his (and our) sins as far as the East is separated from the West. Real love covers a multitude of sins. It may seem like a “get out of jail free” card, but it’s definitely not a “keep on doing what got you into bondage in the first place” license. Just like we want people to be grateful enough for our forgiveness to not harm us again, God wants us to be grateful enough to keep ourselves free from the sinful entanglements He broke away from us. And all this is because God finds no joy in unrighteousness but He does rejoice in truth because truth sets us free. Let’s make God smile today.
Finally, God bears, believes, hopes, and endures because He sees a future we cannot even imagine. His Word says it hasn’t even entered into our hearts what He has prepared, but it also says He has hidden eternity in our hearts. He promised Israel that He had plans for their hope and a future. Through the blood of YahShua, we have become Abraham’s seed and heir to those great and precious promises. God (Love) NEVER fails.
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Keep Following the Leader
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Do you remember our childhood games of “Follow the Leader”? I have a vague memory of them, and it seems to me that it was all about trying to keep an eye on the leader in case he or she did something unexpected. It was sort of like playing “Simon Says” only with a “Simon Does” routine that could throw you off if you blinked. The best followers were those that paid perfect attention and stayed in perfect step. I was just klutzy enough to make that difficult.
In today’s reading from Deuteronomy 31:4 through Deuteronomy 31:6, we have another short reading, so I’ll paste the text directly here…
Unlike our childhood games, God as a leader makes it clear to Israel exactly what He is going to do and what He expects them to do. There’s no sudden trickery or twists to try and throw them off. There’s no effort to trip them up. God only has their victory in mind. He knows they are not strong enough to battle the enemies and take the land of promise on their own, so He leads them in both direction and battle. He guarantees them a win if they will only follow Him, and He guarantees that He will be with them to the very end.
God knows our form as well. He has promised that He will never leave or forsake us. He knows we cannot fight our enemies on our own, so He promises to go before us and to fight the battle ahead of us. He gives us His armor, and He strengthens us with His strength. And, above all else that we have, we are equipped with His love to lead and guide us in every aspect of life. Just in case you wonder if love is all you need, here are some things love does (from 1 Corinthians 13:4-7)…
And, from the beginning of verse 8 in a few different versions, we get Love never fails. We know that God is love, and He has said over and over again that He will never fail us, so we can put His name in front of each item above. We can know that He will be a leader in all these things even as He asks us to follow Him. God is patient and kind. God is not jealous, boastful, proud, rude, selfish or easily angered. God keeps no record of wrongs. God does not gloat over people’s sins, but He takes delight in truth. God always bears up, always trusts, always hopes, always endures, and…God never fails!
And because God will keep being God no matter what, we know that we can keep following The Leader forever.
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September 14, 2014 Posted by Crystal A Murray (aka CrystalWriter) | Bible Study, Nonfiction, Torah Commentary | 1 Corinthians 13, Bible Commentary, Bible study, childhood games, Complete Jewish Bible, Deuteronomy, Follow the Leader, God never fails, Israel, Love Never Fails, Scripture, Torah commentary, Torah Portions | Leave a comment