His Love Never Fails

His Love Never Fails, acrylic on canvas, 6x20x.125

This painting is currently available at the Riverview Gallery in Portsmouth, VA until the end of February. The original is $120 (which includes the frame) or $100 without the frame. For the next month you will have to go there to purchase it; however, if it is still available afterwards then you can contact me directly. This piece was featured in the Abstract Art show, “But, What is it?” at the Riverview Gallery February 5, 2010. I made this piece just for the show, and it marks my first official showing ever. The weather was bad, and there weren’t many people there, but I met other artists and learned some things to help me advance in the art world. I feel like God has opened the door for my art and I have walked through it.

 This picture is titled, “His love never fails” because this is what God wants all of us to know, and He showed me personally in my life just recently. As I created the painting I was singing to the Lord and meditating on just how much he loves us, even when we can’t see it or experience it. I had just overcome a hard trial where God was testing my trust of him. I was being stretched in my faith. During this trial, life was not the way I expected or thought it should be. I felt like I was suffering, and I was fearing things would only get worse. I had a very specific fear and the more I focused on it the more uptight and anxious I became to the point that I could barely function. It was all I could do to just keep my anxiety in check and accomplish my normal day to day tasks, but I was too emotionally drained to do anything creative. This frustrated me, because I wanted to be creative, but my fear was immobilizing me. I was angry at God because I didn’t feel I deserved this trial or circumstance nor did I feel it was just. When I went for prayer the person who prayed for me told me the thing I feared was a very real possibility and I was mad at God for that, since I wanted him to tell me things would be O.K and encourage me. During this time, I began to feel abandoned and unloved, after all I thought if God loved me then why wouldn’t He answer my prayer and fix the situation I was in? Why would he even let me go through it? I probably went through a high level of fear for about two weeks and it was very draining. Finally, I just decided to just accept what it was I was afraid of. I told God I would choose to trust Him regardless even if I didn’t understand , and I stood on bible verses which reminded me of his love. I decided that I wanted God’s will more than my own, and I wanted his presence more than life going the way I wanted. I thought of the apostle Paul who had endured beating and imprisonment for God and yet kept his faith, and even more than that He remained joyful. Although, honestly, thinking of his life was not all that encouraging to me because I wanted to have a better life than what he had. However I did note his joy and peace, which was certainly greater than my own. Why? Because he really knew God’s love, and he also knew that this life is only temporary and his greatest reward for be in heaven someday. I thought, if he could do it, I can do it because we have the same God. It is God who gives us strength and peace, which is beyond what the world can understand. I began to plan about how I would respond if the thing I feared were to happen, and you know the interesting the that happened? The fear went away. After that, it seemed God being moving suddenly (after a long period of standstill) and my circumstances then gradually shifted. God began pouring in his blessing. And I realized, God had allowed me to go through the situation so he could address the fear and remove it. It was kind of like when Abraham was asked to sacrifice Isaac. Was he willing to do it? God didn’t actually let him go through with it, but it was a pivotal point in his walk with God. It meant that he trusted God and God was more important to him than anything, and Abraham needed to have that kind of faith. So God in essence was asking me, what do I love the most? What do I trust in? Up until that test, although I claimed I trusted in God I was really relying on a set of circumstances and conditions for my security. When that was threatened I reacted in fear. Now, how many of us have certain conditions in life that we depend on to be secure and happy? Probably most of us, I think its only natural, and until God challenges us with that, we might not grow in that area. None of those things are guaranteed to us, as hard as that is to accept. Fearing the loss of those things can sometimes imprison and hinder us.

“For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” (Romans 8:15).

It’s only after you let your expectations of those things go and choose to trust in God regardless of what you have or don’t have, that you begin to experience the true peace and joy of God which is not dependent on circumstances. God love is rich, wonderful, and abundant all the time, but sometimes we don’t understand it, and we misjudge God as harsh or uncaring when its not that way at all. If we could only know how much he truly does love us. Sometimes it takes God stretching us or allowing us to be in an uncomfortable place before we can really gain a fuller understanding of it. So allow God to stretch you and don’t doubt his love for a minute.

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (Jeremiah 29:11)

“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him, but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 2:9-10)

“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38-39)

“What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ” (Philippians 3:8)