Love Never Fails

If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails;
1 Corinthians 13:1-8a


Listen to Sherrie Youngward sing this scripture here: http://www.blueletterbible.org/hymns/hymn.cfm?MusicID=3

"I failed, Mommy?" she said, her eyes filling with big tears. I swallowed hard and remembered how many times I had stared at her paper, my teacher hat on, my parent hat being twisted in my hands, willing the answers to be right, wanting to find a way to justify giving her a passing grade. I rubbed her shoulders silently and stared at the paper with her. Her first real failure at something that she was entirely capable of excelling at. My heart ached for her.

"Yes," I said quietly. She wiped her eyes and looked at me...lost. She didn't know what to do with failure. She had no frame of reference. I wrapped my arms around her and gently showed her that she had not followed the instructions given...that her answers were right, with different directions. I couldn't give her grace...we had gone over and over the directions in class and she had forgotten or ignored those instructions. So, she failed. As her teacher, I knew I was justified and required to give her the failing mark. As her mother, I felt that the grade was somehow a reflection of my mothering skills, my influence.

There is an ache in the heart of the failing follower. Where do I turn? How do I find my way back? It's easy to fail, easier still to feel helpless to change. Difficult to claw our way out of the pits of self-pity, denial, shame, guilt. We struggle to do something, show proof of our willingness to be right, to do right, to do good, to be good.

All but love will fail.

Our efforts, our righteousness, our works, our gifts...all of this fails. But love does not. And not any sort of love, but the love of Christ. This extravagant love...

This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. John 15:12-13

The kind of love that lays it all down, lays down one's life. This love does not fail.

And so we must cling tight to this love. Wrestle with it. Let it wear us down, out. Change us from the inside out. Cleanse us and purify us with fire. Love doesn't fail.

And the whys of the failure are there...did we ignore, dismiss, cast off instruction? Have we become calloused to the call of love? Have we built stone walls around our hearts in place of His walls of fire? But the whys are less important than the how...how do we return to our first love?

We confess our need. We cry out to the Living God for mercy. We receive the Love that laid down His life for us. We marvel in the value He places on our hearts. We trust in His forgiveness. We walk forward with Him in Love...and we lay down our own lives for that Love. Love never fails.

So I pray with her and we ask to start over. She knows she cannot undo the mistakes. She knows of the consequences. But she also knows she is loved. I lay down my fears of failure as her mother and pick up hope and carry it with us. Failure doesn't have to define us. We are redeemed.

Thank You, God. Thank You for making a way for failing me to learn to love. Thank You for showing me how to truly love another. Thank You that you redeem my failures. In Jesus' Name, Amen.

Beauty For Ashes

by: Nina Cunningham
"Straight up?" "Yes straight up - tell me straight up..."

"Ok, it's like this: Christians aren't perfect."

I see a luna moth, attracted to the light, fluttering, flying up and down, trying to reach the light. She's tired and frustrated. Could it be she's not trying hard enough?

Luna is tethered. She is tethered to a stake pounded deep within the earth. It's a nuisance and the rope is thick and strong...

As an artist, I tend to think in visuals. The already transformed luna moth, is me. The light is Christ. The stake is my past and the rope...well, the rope is me not trusting in the Lord.

Sometimes I wonder who's will is stronger? My will not to trust God, or His Will? Well, it's not a matter of the strength of our wills because we all know the ONE who created us, His Will, will be done. He can very easily change the situation, or take the situation away...but He doesn't. He waits patiently, a light, shining, waiting for that one day, when we will untie that rope.

I was asked to lead worship at the Calvary Chapel's women's luncheon and one of the songs I chose was called Beauty for Ashes (Shane and Shane). The song is based on Isaiah 61:3 “...and provide for those who grieve in Zion--to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor.”

I felt as thought there could be others beside myself struggling with "holding on" to what was, and in doing so, not completely trusting in God. As Christians, we don't like to admit that we can struggle with trust. When we are in Christ, we are new creatures, so why would we have a hard time trusting in the One who gives us this new life? 2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”

Is it the simple fact that we don't see the meaning of His words as they truly, deeply mean? Do we really understand that we are new creatures? Do we really understand that He replaces the ashes of our mourning with beauty? With Him?

Instead we can be stagnant, stuck, tethered to a past life of sin. We may be ashamed of our past to the point that we actually deny the freedom that Christ provides! When we allow ourselves to be tethered to the past, we are not allowing Christ to change us. We are making a choice not to trust in Him.

So He waits patiently for us to come to Him, so that He may replace the ashes (no more mourning) and become our beauty. He is our Great Physician and our Counselor. He heals - and will make us free if we just untie that rope.

Fast forward - a new visual - this time no luna but a "heart tethered to the Truth." I heard these very words on a Christian radio pod cast this past week. It's no coincidence that the very word tethered was used giving me this new visual. So what is the Truth? The Truth is Christ and He makes us free. John 8:32 “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

Teed Commentary: If you have trusted Christ as your Savior, you are already living today in a spiritual “Year of Jubilee.” You have been set free from bondage; your spiritual debt to the Lord has been paid; you are living in “the acceptable year of the Lord.” Instead of the ashes of mourning, you have a crown on your head; for He has made you a king (Revelation 1:6). You have been anointed with the oil of the Holy Spirit, and you wear a garment of righteousness (Isaiah 61:3, 10).

God promises restoration. When we trust in Him we give Him glory. We no longer rely on ourselves but Him and a renewal will follow. Praise be to God who showers new mercies each day upon the children who often refuse to take His hand. He restores them so that they may fulfill their purpose to bear witness to the One that frees the captive.The One who saves.

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Lyrics for Beauty for Ashes
Shane & Shane
(Click here to listen)

beauty for ashes
a garment of praise for my heaviness
beauty for ashes
take this heart of stone and make it Yours, Yours

i delight myself in the Richest of Fair
trading all that i've had for all that is better
a garment of praise for my heaviness
You are the greatest taste
You're the richest of fair