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By Mike Caton

Exodus 15:13, “In your unfailing love you will lead the people you have redeemed. In your strength you will guide them to your holy dwelling.”

Do we ever stop to think about God’s unfailing love? Anyone who has been a Christian for a while knows the Greek word for God’s love for us is agape. It is the unconditional kind of love, the love that says I will love you regardless, I will pursue the greatest good for you. And not only does God have it towards us, but we are to have it for one another. But this is the Old Testament, it was written in Hebrew. The Hebrew word for love here is chesed. Other translations use words like mercy, loving kindness, deeds of devotion, faithfulness, unchanging love. But just as with agape, there is no single English word that can adequately translate the thought about the love that God has for us.

The concept is not that hard to grasp, though it is a little difficult to explain. It is the kind of love that protects, provides, searches for and offers the best regardless of the cost. It is the love that truly desires the best for the other person. This word is used about 250 times in the Old Testament, and it describes the all consuming, powerful, gracious care that God has for his people. This is the kind of love that will never let you down.

Love has become a cheap and almost fickle commodity in our world. We hear the word so often and in such a frivolous manner, that the real ideal of love has often been lost. We love everything from TV shows to food items to pets to wild animals to a favorite chair to our spouse to the friend we are trying to manipulate. Who can ever know what it means to love someone or to be loved? Any yet God is the perfect example of this, in both the Old and New Testament. He tells his people that he loves them with that unending, all consuming, never failing desire for their absolute best.

We need to learn to trust and accept that love from God. And sometimes it is hard because we have been told we were loved by folks who really didn’t love us. And we also need to learn to share that kind of love with those folks who are around us. But in order to share that kind of love, we have to accept that kind of love from God.

Father, help me be loved and to love in return. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Mike Caton is the preacher at Mount Olive Church of Christ in Belhaven. He volunteers at the Ponzer Fire Department and works full time with Hyde County EMS. If you would like to receive daily devotions in your inbox, email mikecaton@centurylink.net.

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