(Psalm 118:29, HCSB)

We should learn to give thanks to God for one reason alone: His faithful love endures forever. What does this mean? It means simply that God will never quit loving me. What does that really mean? It means that even though I am a sinner, even though I a person who can’t be trusted from one second to the next, God is good. He is good because His love won’t quit. The basis of God’s goodness is His love. God is good because He loves.

The endurance of His love is strong. Sometimes our love is not that enduring. We get impatient with our children. We quit our marriages. We forget people in their time of need. As humans, our love is not that strong. It doesn’t endure. However, God is different. His love is strong. His love will stick with you even when you don’t stick with Him. My security for eternity is based on the fact that God doesn’t give up on me. His love will continue to endure, even when I die. That is because God’s love picks me up and takes me to heaven.

The desire of His love is focused on His children. Sometimes we become unfaithful. We stray. We walk off. We say we don’t want to be with God, with our families, with our jobs. But God’s love is focused. His love is oriented not to things which God would want to do to make Him happy elsewhere. His desire (which is the focus of love) is on His children. Eve was tempted to change her desire to something other than her husband. In the same way, there are many things which tempt us to desire something other than God. The Bible calls this idolatry. However, God places His desire on His children. This makes Him good.

The endurance of His love and the desire of His love make God good. God is not evil. God doesn’t hate His children. God won’t quit on His children in their time of need. God is not a “dead-beat dad.” God doesn’t leave His children. This is one reason why God makes it imperative in other places that one shows the love of God when one takes care of those who have been abandoned. Because God hates that. God doesn’t abandon His people.

God is good for these reasons and we should thank Him for it.

Photo by Hassan Saleh on Unsplash