A very frequent expression in the Psalms is God’s unfailing love. For example, Psalm 32:10 says, “The Lord’s unfailing love surrounds the man who trusts in him.” Think of what that means. God’s love cannot fail. It is steadfast, constant and fixed. In all of the adversities we go through, God’s love is unfailing. As He says to us in Isaiah 54:10,
“Though the mountains be shaken
And the hills be removed,
Yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken
Nor my covenant of peace be removed,”
Says the LORD, who has compassion on you.
Isaiah 54:10
And because His love cannot fail, He will allow into our lives only the pain and heartache that is for our ultimate good.
Even the grief that He Himself brings into our lives is tempered with His compassion. “Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love” (Lamentations 3:32). The assurance here is that God will show compassion. It is not enough to say that He is compassionate, but He will show compassion. That it, even the fires of affliction will be tempered by His compassion, which arises out of His unfailing love. Our afflictions are always accompanied with the compassion and consolation of God.
Paul experienced God’s compassion in the midst of his grief. To prevent pride in his life, God gave him a thorn in his flesh. What the thorn was we do not know, but we know it was a severe affliction for Paul. On three occasions he pleaded with the Lord to take it away, but God said no. Instead, God said, “My grace is sufficient for you” (2 Corinthians 12:9). God brought grief into Paul’s life for his good, but He also showed compassion. He gave grace, in this case divine strength, to bear the grief. He did not leave Paul to bear the thorn in his flesh alone. In His compassion, He provided the divine resources to meet the trials. So eventually Paul came to rejoice in his affliction, because through it he experienced God’s overcoming power.
Paul received grace when he needed it. God does not give us all the divine strength we need for the Christian life the day we trust Christ. Rather, David speaks of God’s goodness, which is stored up for those who fear Him (see Psalm 31:19). Just as we are to store up (the meaning of “hidden” in Psalm 119:11) God’s Word in our hearts against a time of temptation, so God stores up goodness or grace for our times of adversity. We do not receive it before we need it, but we never receive it too late.
I think of a physician whose son was born with an incurable birth defect, leaving him crippled for life. I asked the father how he felt when he, who had dedicated his life to treating the illnesses of other people, was confronted with an incurable condition on his own son. He told me his biggest problem was the tendency to capsule the next twenty years of his son’s life into that initial moment when he learned of his son’s condition. Viewed that way, the adversity was overwhelming. God does not give twenty years of grace today. Rather, He gives it day by day. As the song says, “Day by day, and with each passing moment, strength I find to meet my trials here; trusting in my Father’s wise bestowment, I’ve no cause for worry or fear.”
Jerry Bridges
Jerry Bridges was a well-known Christian writer and conference speaker. His best-known book, The Pursuit of Holiness, has sold well over a million copies. A prolific author, he has sold over 3.5 million copies of his various books, with several titles translated and published in a variety of foreign languages. He joined the staff of The Navigators in 1955, serving 60 years as a staff member in various capacities before transitioning to associate staff and serving within the collegiate ministry. Jerry passed away in the spring of 2016, leaving behind his wife, Jane, two married children and seven grandchildren.