Cultivating a Thankful HeartSmakprov

Thankful for God's Faithful Love We all want to be known fully and loved deeply. To truly experience unconditional, unyielding, unconquerable love. In Christ, we have that. His love is unlike anything I’ve known or experienced or even can fully understand. It sees who He knows I’ll become even when I’m at my worst. But I’m most thankful for how it endures and holds tight to me even when God’s had every reason to let me go. When our family went through a period of unemployment, I rallied against my Savior and accused Him of ignoring my prayers. When a ministry I’d launched showed signs of dying, I acted as if He were uncaring and unfair. When brain cancer began to steal a dear friend from me, I quit talking to Him all together. I’ve been moody, distant, angry, and sullen. Yet God remained faithful, merciful, patient, and near. Of all the gifts He’s given me, His steadfast love, chesed in the original Hebrew, has become most precious, a constant reason to rejoice. Throughout the Old Testament, scholars have translated chesed numerous ways: Faithful love Steadfast love Loving devotion Loving kindness Mercy Loyalty Devotion Favor It is each of those words combined. It’s a faithful, merciful, grace-saturated, covenantal love that reminds when we give God every reason to withdraw. It’s an undeserved yet lavished love of a Father to His beloved, a Savior for His redeemed. This is the love our Father has for us, and it’s one I suspect we’ll never fully understand or be able to describe this side of heaven. It’s a love revealed, in all of its depth and power, in Christ’s death on the cross. We all have countless reasons for sorrow and discouragement, for frustration and angst. But in Christ, we have even greater reasons for praise. During times of difficulty and blessing, may we, like the psalmist, always proclaim, “We give thanks to our Lord, for He is indeed good. His steadfast, merciful, loyal, and devoted love endures forever.”