The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and rich in faithful love.  He will not always accuse us or be angry forever.  He has not dealt with us as our sins deserve or repaid us according to our offenses.  For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His faithful love towards those who fear Him.  As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed the transgressions  from us.  Psalms 103:8-12  HCSB

Psalm 103 is a beautiful hymn of praise. it is only 22 short verses, I encourage you to take time to read the entire Psalm.  As we read David’s words of praise for our Lord and Savior, we are reminded that there is no love greater than God’s love.

We have all been hurt by someone we love.  It happens.  Perhaps we have turned from that person, never to look back.  Perhaps we have struggled and tried to stay and work things out.  Maybe we struggled, tried to work things out and was hurt again.  But when it comes to God’s love, we must realize that it is totally different.  God is patient with us.  God loves us unconditionally.  No matter what we do, God still loves us.  We are saved by his amazing grace.  This psalm tells us that he will not always accuse us.  We can be rescued from our sin.  We can escape the punishment of death.  We can escape God’s wrath and be forgiven.  When we seek His forgiveness, God not only forgives, but He forgets.  He doesn’t hold it over our head, he removes our sins as far as the east is from the west.  Most importantly, praise God, he doesn’t deal with us as we deserve.  If God gave us what we deserved, each and every one of us would be in big trouble.  Verse 11 says that For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His faithful love toward those who fear Him.

So today, I want to ask you one simple question, do you fear God?  The Bible speaks of fear of God.  Now this is not the kind of fear you may experience when someone is attacking you.  It refers to reverential awe and trust.  It is speaking of the type of respect that a child should have for their parent.  The type of love and respect that make us eager to please those that we love.  So do you have that type of love and respect for God?  He gives us free will.  We can choose to do as we wish or we can choose to do what pleases God.

You’ve probably seen those little plaques that say “if momma ain’t happy, then nobody is happy”.  Well, I assure you that if you strive to live a life that pleases God then you will have that peace that passes all understanding.  You will have that joy that never ends.  When we strive to make God happy, then we are given unmeasurable peace and joy in return.

And why would we not want to make God happy?  We will never know a love as great as the love of God.  We will never experience the kind of peace and joy that comes only from being in a relationship with God.  Will we face hard times?  Sure we will, but we will not face them alone.  We will walk through the fire hand in hand with our redeemer.  We will come through the fire without even the smell of smoke on us.

If you are not walking hand in hand with the Father that loves you more than any human mind can comprehend, then let me encourage you to do so.  Turn to Him (James 4:8), take His hand and trust in Him.  I can assure you that you will experience a love like you have never experienced before.  There is no love greater than the love of God, won’t you trust in Him today?  It is a decision that I promise you will never regret.

Have a great day!