Steadfast Heart of God

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness. “The Lord is my portion” says my soul “therefore I will hope in him.”
– Lamentations 3:22-24

Have you experienced God’s love and mercy in this way, never ceasing, new every morning, and with great faithfulness?

There was a point in my own life when I can honestly say that I was not aware of the love and mercy of God. I was raised Catholic, went to Catholic schools and received all the Sacraments, but I walked through life doing my own thing, living my own life, taking care of myself, and not really thinking I needed God for anything. I was doing anything and everything that made me feel happy as I tried to coverup the dark hole that was at the center of my heart. Although I didn’t realize it at the time, I was essentially ignoring the Holy Spirit. It wasn’t until I found myself in a really dark situation that the Lord, in both His merciful love for me and His faithfulness to all those who were praying for me, stepped in to grab ahold of my heart. He stirred up in me Fear of the Lord, which is a gift of the Holy Spirit that I had been given in the Sacraments, but which remained dormant in me until that time.

I have come to understand that this gift of Fear of the Lord is rather important. It is a means by which the Holy Spirit reveals to us the power and might of the Lord, ultimately so that we will humble ourselves and recognize our need for a Savior. In my situation, Fear of the Lord was used to show me that where I was headed was spiraling so far from the Light of Christ. If I continued on that path, I was going to find myself in great danger, further and further away from all goodness and light. The fear I experienced was not a spirit of fear that immobilized me, but it was from the Holy Spirit and so it motivated me to make a move toward God in righteous action.

Through a series of events where I was continually prompted by the Holy Spirit in much of the same way, I was eventually led to a major conversion; a complete turning away from my life of sin to a life lived for the Lord. It did however take quite some time for my return, but once I took that first step back toward God, the Lord in His kindness gave me his mother Mary as a guide and spiritual mother. The Blessed Mother tenderly took my hand and ever so gently and patiently walked me back to her Son Jesus (more on that later).

The passage above from Lamentations tells a truth about the Lord that is undeniable. The Lord our God, who created us out of nothing, is steadfast in His mercy and love for us. He is loving us into existence each and every moment and although we are sinners, His mercy is ever new as He continues to hope in us. That’s right, the Lord hopes in us! Do you hope in the Lord? Jesus no doubt has hope in you. In hope He was able to suffer and die on the cross so that you may have full access to eternal salvation. Jesus saw all the ways we would turn away from God, but He still held onto hope that through His sacrifice we would eventually turn back to God, that we would experience full conversion and live only for Him.

In my life, when I was living a life of sin, I was not seeking God in the slightest. But what I did have was the seal of my Baptism and Confirmation. The indelible mark of the Holy Spirit left by these two Sacraments were effective in my conversion. As family members faithfully prayed for me during that time, the Holy Spirit that was present in my soul, stirred inside of me and I was gifted with Fear of the Lord so that I would stop what I was doing.

If you are in need of a deeper relationship with God or if you know someone who is living in sin or despair and needs to experience the steadfast love of God, come along with me as I venture out on this journey of starting this blog. I hope to be able to share with you some of the stories from my own journey, as well as share some insights that the Lord inspires me to write.

If there is one thing in my life that I have learned that has completely changed my perspective and brought me so much peace, it is the realization that the steadfast heart of God pursued me first. I was completely and utterly unworthy of God’s mercy, but He pursued me anyway and He did not give up on me. “His mercies never come to an end” so therefore “I will hope in the Lord”.

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