Have you ever had a friend who made you wonder how you would be greeted and treated on any particular day? Have you ever had a boss who one minute nominated you for employee of the year and the next left you in fear of losing your job? Have you yourself ever woke up one morning and bitten everyone’s head off just for being alive and daring to smile?
Moody people are difficult to deal with. You never know how to act. You never know what to say and not to say. In fact, you do your best to avoid people like that if at all possible. And when you recognize that you have done it to others, you loathe yourself for it. It isn’t right; it isn’t fair; it certainly isn’t kind.
This brings me to the verse at the top, a promise we all too often read without thinking, as if it were a meaningless refrain. “His steadfast love endures forever.” It isn’t just that God will love us forever, though that is reason enough to praise Him. That word “endure” also carries with it the idea that His love is consistent and will never waver. You will never find God in a bad mood.
You don’t have to worry that one day He has a headache and might be a little short-tempered. He won’t ever get up on the wrong side of bed and snap at you because you dared to talk to Him before He had His morning cup of coffee. He won’t decide on a whim one morning to hand you a pink slip. God’s love is consistent—nothing can cause it to vacillate as long as you serve Him with all your heart.
If we truly want to be more like Him, we should love Him the same way—whether the day brings good or ill, whether we feel well or not, and even when we suffer. It’s not like He didn’t suffer for us, and not only did His love not waver then, it is precisely because of His unwavering love for us that He suffered.
And if we want to serve Him, maybe we should do our best to get past those bad moods we foist on others. There is no excuse for pettiness, for mean-spiritedness, for spite and malice, no matter what we are going through at the time, certainly not because we just happen to be in a bad mood that day. As servants, we don’t have the right to be in a bad mood--we must be in the mood to love and serve Him every day, which means, according to Matthew 25, loving and serving others that way.
Unwavering, eternal love—that’s what He gives, and that is what we should return.
Love is patient and kind…it is not arrogant or rude. It is not irritable or resentful… 1 Cor 13:4-6.
Dene Ward
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