Dear All, my name is Tan Kang Fun but I am better known as KF Tan in the market place. I am currently the CEO of a health trust company in Singapore. I started my career as an auditor with one of the Big 4 firms before I joined a chemical company back in 1990. In year 2000, I moved to a high-performance material manufacturing plant where I was the Managing Director. Before my present position, I was with healthcare companies where I had different roles at different point in time as the CPO, CFO and COO.

If I were to ask you to say to your spouse / girlfriend / boyfriend like “I love you” is probably much easier than saying “My unfailing love for you”. The latter love words sound a bit like we are living in Shakespear era and we may not be comfortable with this not so common term. All of us are more accustomed to the conventional three love words of “I love you”. It would be interesting to find out the meaning of “unfailing” and “love”. I looked up Oxford dictionary for the definition of

       Unfailing – never coming to an end; meeting one’s expectation at all times

       Love – warm, kind feeling; fondness; affectionate and tender devotion

Well, if you were to stand in front of your the-other-half and say “Darling, my unfailing love for you” instead of “I love you”, it may cause a stir or the reaction may be that your spouse may say “you are out of your mind!” Whatever it is, the term “unfailing love” has a much stronger connotation than “I love you”. Unfortunately, not many of us, or should I say none, dare to articulate that in front of our spouse.

Today, I would like to tell you that there is only one person who uses the term “Unfailing Love” liberally and at the same time He can truly deliver you. Let us ponder over what it means by “God’s Unfailing Love”, the title today. It means that God’s love cannot fail. It is steadfast, constant and fixed. In all the adversities we go through, God’s love is unfailing. He says to us in Isaiah 54:10 “Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love (in NKJV is kindness) for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed, says the LORD, who has compassion on you.” And because His love cannot fail, He will allow into our lives only the pain and heartache that is for our ultimate good.

Because of God’s unfailing love, He established a welfare system when the laws were given to the Jews. God being sovereign already know from creation, mankind will need it in the future. The welfare system was to benefit the poor and the strangers, regardless of whether they are God’s chosen people

Leviticus 19:9-10 say, “When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field, nor shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest. ¹⁰ And you shall not glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather every grape of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger: I am the Lord your God.”

From these few verses, God’s people were instructed to leave some of their harvest in the fields so travelers and the poor could gather it. God has to instruct His people if you forget a sheaf in the field, leave the bundle there; once you have beaten the olive trees, any olive fruits still on the branches don’t pluck it; and God says “once you have harvested the grapes, don’t go through the second time to collect the left overs.” This is great; isn’t it?

God has to set up a welfare system so that the stranger, the fatherless and the widows can be taken care off. God being who He is, in His unfailing love nature, told His people to treat the poor with justice. The powerless and poverty-stricken are often looked upon as incompetent or lazy when, in fact, they may be victims of oppression and circumstance. God says we must do all we can to help the needy ones. What God has provided for in His laws was to give the poor every opportunity to better their situation, while providing humane options for those who couldn’t. None of us is completely isolated from the poor. God wants us to treat them fairly and do our part to see that their needs are met.

Many passages in the Old Testament demonstrate this. The question is --- how can we apply them in our daily lives? Let me share with you in 5 situations from the Old Testament how God’s unfailing love can encourage you and in turn how His promise of unfailing love keeps us going in the New Testament.

1) God Shows His Unfailing Love in Times of Danger and Trial

Psalm 31:16 says “Let your face shine on your servant; save me in your unfailing love (“for Your mercies sake” in NKJV)”

As God’s servants, we depend on Him to rescue us in times of danger and trial. God’s servants obey Him and do His will. We also receive strength and help from the God whom we serve. God never forsakes His servants. God says in Joshua 1:5 “……. I will never leave you nor forsake you.” This is a promise from our Almighty God. God cannot lie. Therefore, in times of distress we can turn to Him and know that He hears our problems. His grace is always sufficient (2 Corinthians 12:9 says “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness”).

Furthermore, God is with us in our troubles. He does not merely send grace from heaven to meet our trials. He Himself comes to help us. He says to us, “Fear not ….. I will help you” (Isaiah 41:14). This is likened to the story of when someone comes to you saying he is hungry and in need of help, you don’t just say “Go and I’ll pray for you”. Take heed, lip service does not make that man’s stomach full. Instead, you ought to provide him with food and see that his other needs are being addressed too. 

In Isaiah 43:2, God says “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, Nor shall the flame scorch you.” This verse reminds me of the hymn “God Leads Us Along”. The chorus of the hymn tells us that in times of trial “Some through the waters, some through the flood, some through the fire, but all through the blood; some through great sorrow but God gives a song in the night season and all the day long.” How reassuring this verse is to us all Christians. God promises specifically to be with us in our sorrows and afflictions.

He will not spare us from the waters of sorrows and the fires of adversity, but He will go through them with us. Even when the waters and fires are those that God Himself brings into our lives, He still goes through them with us. Job 23:10 gives us that assurance “But He knows the way that I take; When He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold.”

God’s unfailing love preserves God’s people in the midst of problems. It is more precious than any gem. No one can buy it. Psalm 36:7 says “How priceless is your unfailing love (lovingkindness)! Both high and low among men find refuge in the shadow of your wings.” God unceasingly offers His love to those who in faith will accept it. God’s love is basic to His character. No conflict exists between His love and righteousness. Righteousness is the goal He loves to achieve in His world. In turn, His love is the goal His people seek in their distress.

So, are you tapping on God’s unfailing love in times of danger and trial? He shall cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you shall take refuge. Psalm 91 tells us that. This is like a mother hen who at all cost will protect its chicks in times of danger. In the darkest moments of life, the assurance of His loving presence gives us confidence that we are not alone. He gives us the grace to endure, the wisdom to know He is working, and the assurance that Christ can “emphatize with our weakness.” We have a heavenly Father that we can talk to and if we seek Him in faith, He will respond either through His words, the Holy Spirit’s leading, signs and/or bringing people into our path to counsel us with a solution in place.

Thus, we can use these God given principles at our workplace by being loving to difficult people. Once I was informed by a friend of a difficult boss he was encountering at work. I took the opportunity to share with him about our loving God and how he can overcome the difficult boss by not having to quit his job. The secret was not by responding to how the world is used to doing by acting in the “tit-for-tat” manner and at the end leave the toxic organization. Instead, I shared with him we need to be different from the world by being supportive, understanding, persevering, compassionate and prayerful to support our bosses. When they realize that we are different, their attitudes towards us will change for the better. Our response will make them realize they still have friends at work! 

Now, I shall end Part 1 of the series on God’s Unfailing Love. Thank you for listening ……………. Part 2 to be continued.