Be steadfast, a phrase I'd really not given much thought to in my twenty plus years as a Christian. That changed a few weeks ago when I heard that still small voice and begun to study what "Be Steadfast" meant.
In my previous blog post, you can read about "Be Steadfast", but today I want to discuss God's, steadfast love.
Sometimes I forget God has a personality; after all, we are made in his image. God wants us to be like him, and that means showing his character; faithful, merciful, gracious, goodness, loyal, kindness, righteous, and steadfast love.
The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, "The Lord, the Lord,
a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love
and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands forgiving iniquity
and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty,
visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children,
o the third and the fourth generation."
Exodus 34: 6-7
In Hebrew, steadfast love means "hesed" and can be summed up as a faithful, committed love. God's love for us never changes. He is committed to us and will keep his promise never to leave us or forsake us.
The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you;
he will never leave you nor forsake you.
Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged."
Deuteronomy 31:8
Just as God used Moses to deliver his people from Pharoh's hands, by parting the Red Sea, staying with them through their many years of complaining, his hesed remained as the next generation entered the land flowing with milk and honey. A promise God made and kept to the children of Isreal.
And I promise that I will bring you up
out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites,
the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites,
and Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey."
Exodus 3:17
I recently watched "The Passion of The Christ" again, but this time with my family. My husband and I thought it was a great time to show our two older kids a glimpse of what Jesus suffered for us all. As I watched what Jesus went through for me, how the soldiers ripped his flesh over and over again, I saw the steadfast love of God.
God did not have to send his Son. He could have just wiped humankind out after the betrayal in The Garden of Eden, but God is hesed.
Jesus could have said no that he would not bear the burdens of humankind, but as God's Son, he is hesed.
For God so loved the world,
that he gave his only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish,
but have everlasting life.
John 3:16
As children of God, we are to be like him. We are to show his steadfast love in every aspect of our lives.
It made me a little nervous about writing about God's Steadfast Love because I think of it being shown only under trials of life, but we are to be like God even in good times.
"And let us not grow weary of doing good,
for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up."
Galatians 6:18
Let me leave you with this;
We have the opportunity to know and serve a great God.
What is so mind-blowing is whether we do or not doesn't change who he is. God is the alpha and the omega, "I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty, (Revelation 1:8)."
How have you seen God’s steadfast love in your life?
https://thebiblicalwife.wixsite.com/mysite
Commentaires