Lincoln Brewster - OxygenSample

On and On

Devotional for the song "You Never Stop"

The traditional wedding vows contain a line that goes something like this: "for better, for worse." Those four words cover a lot of ground. They're like a spectrum, and there's a lifetime of experiences that can fit on that line. Making a commitment like that to love another human being "no matter what" is no slight thing. Not by a long shot.

Just ask a couple who has been married for fifteen, twenty, thirty years and they can tell you story after story where those vows were tested sometimes to the point of breaking. "Better" can mean really, really good. And "worse" can mean utterly heartbreaking.

That kind of a vow is what is made to us by the heart of God. The God of all gods has promised to love us no matter what. No matter how bright things may get and no matter how horribly dark they may become. God's love persists. It goes on and on and on. It never stops.

There may be those seasons when we almost wish God's love would cease because our shame and guilt is so heavy. We know we're the one who broke the vow, we're the one who strayed and was unfaithful. And the enemy of our hearts sweeps in to condemn us in those moments, to tell us how unworthy we are of so great a love. How worthless and unlovable we are.

But in our unfaithfulness, He remains faithful. When our hearts wander and chase after what John Eldredge calls those "less-wild lovers", God's heart toward us stays constant. His love is unchanging, unending, never ceasing, steadfast. The love of our God goes on and on.

In one of the most affirming of the psalms (139), the psalmist had a moment of thinking he might have gone beyond the horizon of God's love, he might have sailed too far into the darkness. But he comes to his senses and declares "Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?...Even the darkness will not be dark to you." God seeks for us even in the shadows. God loves for us goes on and on, for better or worse. No matter how many times we stray. No matter what.

He has vowed it, not based on our strengths or weaknesses, but based on His enduring character. And great is His faithfulness. Great is His love.