Falling in Love Again With Your LordSample

O LORD, YOUR LOVINGKINDNESS IS BETTER THAN LIFE!

Psalm 63:3-4

David understood God's love. The word for lovingkindness in the Old Testament is the word "hesed," which is often used to describe God's loyal, steadfast, covenant love, a love that surpasses knowledge. Read Ephesians 3:17-19 and listen very carefully and prayerfully to Paul's prayer for the church.

Comprehending and believing God's love is essential to being able to walk in His transcending, transforming love. We don't really believe something until we really receive it, take it in, and walk in it.

This means that when we get up from spending time with God in His Word and enter into the day-and all that comes with it-we trust and believe that God loves us. Likewise, when we fall completely short of the mark, knowing that we continually do, we choose to trust in His forgiving lovingkindness. This is the Gospel!

The parable of the prodigal son is a powerful picture of God's hesed-His lovingkindness, His covenant love. Read Luke 15:11-32. When the son returned to his father, he hoped that his father would at least take him back as a servant. But his father received and accepted him as a son! The father poured out his love upon the son, threw a party, and gave his son the finest robe and a gold ring. When that son received his father's love, he entered into a full relationship with his father.

If we have trusted in Jesus, then we have that same loving acceptance from our heavenly Father. But how often do we forget this? It's important that we believe in God's acceptance of us in Christ and in His lovingkindness toward us. When we believe in His love and acceptance of us and receive it, we will be able to live in that love and give it.