HE IS…Abounding In Love

Have you heard the Hebrew word “HESED”? It is a glorious word used over 250 times in the Old Testament to describe God’s character. The wild thing about it though is that there isn’t an equivalent word in our English language. It is a word that embodies steadfast, compassionate, never-ending, covenantal, loyal, mercy-laden, gracious, FAITHFUL love. A picture of hesed in the Old Testament is the love, compassion and mercy Boaz shows Ruth and that Ruth shows Naomi.

When God met with Moses on Mt Sinai and proclaimed His name (check out Exodus 34 for the full account), here’s what He revealed His Name, His character, His embodiment to be…
“The Lord—the Lord is a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in faithful (HESED) love and truth, maintaining faithful (HESED) love to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, rebellion, and sin…” (Exodus 34:6-7)

Today I’d like to focus on that word “ABOUNDING”. The word means to exist in great numbers or quantity. Some synonyms are abundant, lavish, generous, plentiful, richly, bountifully, manifold. As we put these two words together—ABOUNDING in HESED—we see the very heart of God.

His love for us is abundantly overflowing with faithful, compassionate, covenantal, mercy-full, loyal love. Let that sink in today.

Your husband may have walked away, broken your covenant, hurt you, discarded your marriage vows. That might be true. But the bigger and more real truth is that today if you are in Christ, you are loved by a God who pours out covenant-keeping love in eternal and lavish ways. You are not unloved. You are radically loved by One who will never, ever walk away. Let’s rest ourselves in this glorious truth today.