365 Days of the Great Names of God, Day 296: God Who Loves (Elohim Ahavah)

God Who Loves (Elohim Ahavah)

"The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying: 'I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.' " (Jeremiah 31:3 NIV) 

"Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." (1 Corinthians 13:7 ESV)

I’ve never forgotten one definition of “bears” I learned years ago around the women’s Bible study table: to “put up with.”

Oh, friends, is there ever some putting up with to be done on this earth: with ourselves, with our coworkers, with our spouses, with our children, with our friends, with our churches.

This is the stuff of real life, and yet as believers, we are called to something more than mere survival, more than just getting through each day. We are aiming at the goal of a love so radical, it has to come from the world’s only perfect example: the God who loves.

This God puts up with me all the time. I do not mean He merely tolerates me. Nor do I mean He overlooks or excuses sin. I do not mean He does not hold me to a standard. I do not mean He delivers me from all the consequences of my actions. But He loves me in spite my failings and my disobedience and my lukewarmness...in spite of myself. And, He loves me enough to show me something better.

On our own, we just get by (if that), but when we ask for the strength God gladly and lavishly gives, we can put up with what would otherwise undo us. We can believe when we would otherwise give up. We can hope when we would otherwise despair. We can endure when we would otherwise quit.

And so each morning as we get out of bed (whether by leap or by straggle), we can ask Elohim Ahavah to renew us in a bearing, believing, hoping, enduring way. And when we do, we can trust that His love-driven “yes” is at the ready.