You have heard it said that God is love. He is love. Where love abides, there is God. Where there is no love, there is only darkness and sin.
There are two words for love in Hebrew. Ahavah is the word for the love between a mother and child, a husband and wife, a brother and sister or friends. But there’s another word for the
love of God…Hesed. Hesed is that steadfast, loyal, and merciful love which God shows to his people. It is more than human love, because it wants to forgive.
We hear how unreasonable such love can be as Abraham tests God’s love. Will you still destroy Sodom if there are fifty innocent souls within its’ walls? No. What about 45? No. What about 30? No. What about 20? No. What about 10? No. For God’s love is the love that is aching to forgive. Have no doubt about it, God is the God of justice, but he is the judge with
a merciful heart.
Like the father of the prodigal who gives him his half of the estate and who then sits outside waiting for him to come home after he has squandered it on dissolute living. Like the shepherd
who goes in search of the one sheep he has lost, or the woman who spends all day searching for the lost coin. God loves us so much that he desires more than anything else that we repent and
live.
And he loves us so much that he wants us to have the same merciful love for one another. That’s what we pray at least three times everyday. Forgive us our sins Lord, just as much as we forgive those who sin against us!
So, is there someone you have not forgiven. Someone who hurt you very deeply? Remember what the Lord said about that? If you remember someone who has something against you, leave your gift at the altar and go be reconciled with your brother. Then return and offer your gift.
You can always come back for the 9:45!
For if I have not love, I am nothing.
