Never?
OK, were you taught like me to never say never or always? Why, I would ask my mom? Because it’s rarely true and doesn’t build loving relationships.
But wait a minute!
God doesn’t follow that rule.
Just coming off of Easter, I love what Paul said about Jesus: “Knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him” (Romans 6:9).
Check out a few things on God’s never list:
Encouragement: God’s “lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:22-23).
Stability: God will “never allow the righteous to be shaken” (Psalm 55:22).
Unconquerable: God “will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed” (Daniel 2:44).
Frightening: God will unleash “a time of distress such as never occurred since there was a nation until that time” (Daniel 12:1).
Horrifying: Jesus will say to many, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness” (Matthew 7:23).
Satisfied: Jesus said, “Whoever drinks of the water that I will give shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life” (John 4:14; 6:35).
Secure: Jesus said, “I will give eternal life to them, and they will never perish” (John 10:28; 11:26).
Always right: God says, “There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be!” (Romans 9:14)
Never alone: God said, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5).
Check out a few things on our never list:
We’ve all blown it: God said “Indeed, there is not a righteous man on earth who continually does good and who never sins” (Ecclesiastes 7:20).
Be gracious: God says this about gracious and generous people: “The righteous will never be shaken” (Psalm 112:6).
Don’t twist grace to excuse sin: God said “Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?” (Romans 6:1-2, 15)
Resist payback: God tells us to “never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God” (Romans 12:19).
No more meat?: “If food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause my brother to stumble” (1 Corinthians 8:13).
Love always works: “Love never fails” (1 Corinthians 13:8).
Beware of false teachers: They are “always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Timothy 3:7), and “having eyes full of adultery that never cease from sin, enticing unstable souls, have a heart trained in greed, accursed children” (2 Peter 2:14).
Only one exception to boasting: “But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Galatians 6:14; 1 Corinthians 1:31).
Be virtuous: “Be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble” (2 Peter 1:10).
Thanks, Lord, for never-ending truth and grace!
Pastor Jeff