He'll Come Running

"Blessed are those whose way is blameless,

who walk in the law of the LORD" —Psalm 119:1

Psalm 119 is the longest psalm in the psalter, twenty-two stanzas arranged around the twenty two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The psalmist affirms throughout his love for God's Word and his desire to "walk" in it. But the psalm ends with a whimper: "(Nevertheless,) I keep wandering off like a lost sheep" (119:176).

Nobody never sins. That's where grace comes in.

Julian of Norwich wrote, "When you are distressed by your failures, do not run from the Lord—as if any of us could hide from Him! Instead, run to Him quickly ... and say, ‘I have corrupted myself and made myself filthy, and I hate it because now I’m not like you. I cannot be clean again—I cannot be free from this corruption—unless you come and lift me and help me.' And He always comes!"—I Promise You a Crown

When you fall all you got to do is call, and He'll come running, wherever you are...

He whose day-life is obedient righteousness,

Who, after failure, or a poor success,

Rises up, stronger effort yet renewing—

He finds thee, Lord, at length, in his own common room.

—George Macdonald

David Roper

God's Steadfast Love

Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;

for his steadfast love endures forever! —Psalm 118:1,29.

What is the practical outcome of believing—really believing—that God loves us? 

Well.. among other things, His love will set us free from the need to look for human approval (118:6).

We don’t need to look into other people's eyes to see if we're okay. We won't be devastated by criticism and disapproval. We won't need to win or be in charge all the time. We won't worry so much about our appearance. We won't go looking for love in all the wrong places. We won't violate our conscience to be part of the crowd. We  won't have to be stronger than, smarter than, better than (whatever). We can relax and be what we are—God’s cherished children, the object of his utmost affection, "the apple of His eye."

It's said that life is a quest for three things: security, significance and love, but it seems to me that life is mostly a quest for love, for security and significance are by-products of the knowledge that someone loves us and will always love us no matter what we do.

It was Kermit the frog, I think, who said that wonderful things begin to happen to you when you know that someone loves you and will never let you go. 

David Roper