"Those who know your name will trust in you, for you, LORD, have never forsaken those who seek you."

For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed – a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: 'The righteous will live by faith.'”

My youngest was playing and learning a song he had heard at church this summer, “Your Love Never Fails” while he was practicing his guitar in our garden arbor. As he sang the words, “Your love never fails, never gives up, never runs out on me,” he would stop for a second and think about it. Then he would look at me, shake his head and say, “That's just crazy.”

Over and over he did this. It was as if his heart was inviting him to believe something that his mind could not see or put any sense to. While it seemed crazy in a logical sense, slowly, as he proclaimed this about God over and over, his heart began to open more to the possibility.

Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight.”

As my little one has proclaimed this and open his heart to the possibilities, God has somehow met him in this. His belief is a little deeper and he no longer shakes his head in disbelief when he sings the song.

Tonight as I tucked him in, we read about God speaking to Samuel as a child so I asked him what God was speaking to him. He listened and told me, “I am His son and He loves me.” He said, “I heard him say this to me in my head.”

Hebrews 6:12 asks us to be “imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.”

Our lives are a journey of faith – learning to believe what we cannot see.... Learning to trust and live as the Beloved. Believing that He loves us, believing that He is for us, believing that He is good... believing that His love never fails, never gives up, and never runs out on us.

What is God inviting you to believe? Where in your life do you not yet believe that His love will never fail you or give up on you?

So often we, just like those in the Bible forget and get caught in trying to earn love or make it about what we are doing rather than our belief and trust.  Righteousness in God's eyes cannot be earned, but it is  given a free gift "through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe."

What God is asking us is not great works or feats, but first and foremost, that we would trust in His love for us and live out of this place. Are we really fully living as the Beloved and believing?  Or,  are we shaking our heads in disbelief as we say the words? 

Paul wrote, "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Lord, forgive me where I doubt or feel I need to make my own way or make the way for ones I care for. Help us to live in a place of complete trust in all circumstances.

"Watch closely.  I'm laying a foundation in Zion, a solid granite foundation, squared and true.  And this is the meaning of the stone:  A TRUSTING LIVE WON'T TOPPLE."  (Is. 28:16, MSG)