His "Steadfast Love"

My promise in an email was to explain the name "Steadfast Love." So, here goes.... :) This past summer, I led Kelly Minter's "Ruth" through email with Nancy and Heather. With my family, job,  church, and everything in between it was nice to be able to still be accountable with bible study, but do it on my own time. I enjoyed it so much and learned so much from the two awesome women that completed it with me that I wanted to do it again. I sent out the generic email to you to give you the opportunity and had an incredible response. Thinking about how LONG the emails were between just 3 of us during "Ruth" I knew I was going to have to come up with another way for us all to "meet." So the blog was born. (Lord, help me!!)
Now for the name..... I didn't want it to be anything about me and everything about HIM. I was praying, "Okay God, just give me a name please." During lunch break at work a few weeks ago, I was alone in the back (which is very uncommon since I have the best coworkers and we usually gab all during lunch). I was looking at a magazine and there was a scripture in it with the word IMPROVE above it, "Be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the Lord's work, knowing that your labor in the Lord is not in vain." 1 Cor. 15:58. The word STEADFAST just really struck me. So, I finished looking at the magazine, finished it up, and then picked up my Bible. I just honestly opened it up and it was in Psalm 136 so, I just started reading and wouldn't you know....in the version I had for the entire second half of the 26 verses it says, "for his STEADFAST LOVE endures forever." Okay God, you've got my attention. I actually started laughing. Once I finished reading through it, I opened up to the front of the Bible (it is new to me, I bought it because it has a read through the bible in a year assignment in it and a new translation  to me the English Standard Version). Just like God, above the daily assignment readings the scripture  Psalm 90:14 "Satisfy us in the morning with your STEADFAST LOVE, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days" was there. Then I decided to research the term steadfast love in Hebrew. When I did the word "hesed/chesed" came up. That probably means nothing to you but it meant the world to me. (Nancy and Heather...is that word ringing a bell?) I was amazed, simply amazed. The word "hesed/chesed" is the word that the whole "Ruth" bible study was focused around, God's covenant love for us. The other amazing thing is that THERE IS NOT AN ENGLISH WORD that is even close to parallel to the Hebrew word hesed/chesed. Terms like "loving-kindness, love, grace, steadfast love, mercy, covenant" are just some of the english words that do not even come close to the true meaning of how He really feels for us.
All of this happened in about a 30 minute period. When Amanda returned from lunch, I just started running off at the mouth!! haha. So, I had a name...may everything we do here, Glorify Him because His love for us is "hesed," there just is no other word.