God’s Covenant Love

Scripture

“Now behold, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have magnified Your lovingkindness, which you have shown me by saving my life.”

~Genesis 19:19, NASB [1995]

Quote

The most rewarding aspect of prayer is our intimacy with the Father.

~Charles F. Stanley

Belinda gave me a devotional last Christmas by Charles Stanley. Charles is one of those rare preachers who can write better than he can preach. I highly recommend this little book…JESUS, OUR PERFECT HOPE. Dr. Stanley has amazing insights and he specializes in prayer. I am convinced that a great deal of my praying is selfish. I am either tempted to rattle off a list of sins or goof-ups that are tormenting my conscience or a list of personal request of things I want. After 72 years and 63 of those as a believer, I still don’t know how to pray. I have a tendency to rush into His holy and divine presence and of course, this is the wrong approach. To make bad matters worse, I then begin my selfish diatribe. I do struggle but YouTube helps. Sometimes I just sit and listen to Kari Jobe, BE STILL MY SOUL. A huge part of intimate prayer is getting the soul to shut up. Stanley says, “The Father longs for you to spend time with Him.” Of course, my soul cries out “Why?” Why would the the Eternal One, maker of heaven and earth, long to spend time with me? About the only time I don’t goof up is during my QT in my little building. At least there, I cannot say or do anything that will hurt someone else {as long as I leave the phone off}. I love my hiding place because there is less temptation and less opportunity to sin.

Let me share a little theology with you. One of the more popular words in the OT is the Hebrew word is ḥeseḏ which is translated in multiple ways: Mercy, kindness, lovingkindness, goodness, kindly, merciful, favor, good, goodliness, and pity. In the KJV, mercy is the most often used [149]. In today’s text {Gen. 19:19} the NASB translates it Lovingkindnes; the KJV reads mercy; the NLT, NIV, ESV, and CSB translate it great kindness. The NASB [2000] translates it compassion. It is the OT word for God’s COVENANT LOVE. This love is an unrelenting, enduring, eternal love which emanates  from the GREATER Party {Yahweh} in the covenant. It is a love that you cannot earn, relate to or fathom. To compare God’s love to our human love is a gross error. I love my family and my friends but my love is puny, inept, pathetic and disgraceful compared to the love of Jesus. If you are like me, you feel unlovely most of the time. Genesis 19 is a vivid reminder that God’s love is based not on our merit but His unfathomable grace. The LORDSHIP salvation crew, like MacArthur and others, do not want to admit it, but Lot was a type of worldly believer. Like all worldly believers, he lost everything he had in this world, but God in mercy saved him from total destruction. I am not suggesting that you follow his example but I am saying that God’s love is far greater than our sin. If God can love Lot and Jonah unconditionally, why can’t He love you and I! Understanding His love is a huge part of intimacy in prayer.

EXTRA

September has been a busy month with football and volleyball. We are gone every night except Wednesday and Sunday to either volleyball or football. Things should slow down in a couple of weeks. Today is dedicated to the Gaines Burden family. I will be leaving for the POINT in a couple of hours and will be there all day. I had to lay all my projects aside this week but none of them are eternally significant so it doesn’t matter. What matters most is obedience. Pray that I will follow the LORD’s guidance.

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