Love and faithfulness
by Faye Schmidt
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Love and faithfulness meet together; righteousness and peace kiss each other. Faithfulness springs forth from the earth, and righteousness looks down from heaven (Psalm 85:10,11).
Read Psalm 85:1,2,8–13
Stop! Pause! Take the time to read the verse again – and again. What beauty, what imagery.
Can you see it? Can you envisage what this would look like if converted to a real image before your eyes?
It reveals a state of total peace. This is the culmination of everything.
God is love. So, we know that this is God in action. And who is faithful? Why, God’s Son, who was obedient unto death, even death on a cross.
Through Jesus’ faithfulness in fulfilling the law on our behalf and justifying us before God, God looks at us from heaven and sees us as righteous, ie made right with him.
As a result of this love and faithfulness meeting, there is righteousness and peace – we, as the recipients of this love and faithfulness – are made right with God and share in this peace, a peace that passes all understanding. God came down from heaven to earth, and this will be the theme of many of our hymns and carols in the coming days.
How can we not approach our daily life with thanksgiving when blessed with such a gift from God? Whatever may be happening in our family, work or church, we know from Paul that ‘nothing can ever separate us from the love of God that is Christ Jesus our Lord’. When we look to that love and accept it, only then do we find the peace that has been won for us.
I thank you, Lord, that you promise me the peace that the world cannot give, the peace that comes from knowing you have made me right with you and the Father through the Holy Spirit. May I live my day today in thanksgiving and praise in all I do. Amen.
Faye Schmidt continues her diaconal calling through governance, having served on the Vic–Tas District Church Board, the General Church Board and currently as chair of the Standing Committee on Constitutions and her congregation, Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Adelaide. Having lived and worked in many locations within Australia and overseas, Faye has a heart for the stranger and the newcomer and for being open to new ideas, learning from others and responding to needs.
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