Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. Isa. 41:10.

God is faithful. His love, forgiveness, and mercy never change toward us. If we are lost at last, it will not be because God has cut us off from His love or severed us from His mercy, but because we turned from Him with the full light of His love and grace shining in our eyes. God is always affirmative in His attitude toward us. The truth of an ever present Christ is true anti sure, unless we break the link with God ourselves.

God is true. Therefore with Christ in us we also are true. God is eternal love. Therefore we love because "the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost" (Rom. 5:5). God is righteousness. Therefore Christ in us means we are righteous too. We cannot have His life in us and be absent from His love, His mercy, His righteousness.

There may be times when we are in doubt. Yet we can say with assurance, "God is true." His word to us is acceptance. He still loves us. He never stops caring for us. His love to us does not change because we do wrong, any more than we as parents change our- love toward our children when they do wrong.

Let us not believe Satan's lies that, because we have fallen short, God has separated Himself from us. I want to bring you face to face again with our heavenly Father, for God is true. He is faithful to His character of love and mercy. God does not love us less because of our failures. He is saddened when we go our own way. Not until we believe that God loves us in spite of all our infirmities and imperfections can we find strength to be different. Let us not say to ourselves: "Now I will mend my ways. I will improve myself. Then God will love anti accept me, approve of me."

Let us not try to change ourselves. God's love heals. Selfishness destroys. Love expands the life. Selfishness binds and cramps our style. Selfishness pours out anger, hostility, misunderstanding. The love of God pours out mercy, grace, and kindness. Selfishness uses emotional pressure. The love of God uses forgiveness and sacrifice. Our love is a response to a Person and to a life so wonderful that we become changed.