Episode #142 How Does God Describe Himself? – God’s Love for You is Steadfast

Hey friends, we're starting off today with an interesting question. If you could imagine meeting God for the very first-time face to face, like he walked up to you off the street . I want you to picture God looking you dead in the eyes and saying, “Hi, I'm the Lord.”

What else do you think he would tell you about himself? It's an interesting thing to think about, but I've been sitting with this question because that's almost literally what happened between God and Moses in the book of Exodus.
Now, they already had a relationship. God had already freed the Israelite people from slavery in Egypt. And this interaction happened on the mountain when God is giving Moses the replacement tablets of the Ten Commandments.
We're picking it up here in Exodus 34, it's talking about how Moses cut the tablets of stone just like he did the first time, and he rose early in the morning and went up onto Mount Sinai as the Lord had commanded him. And then in verse five:

“The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness” (Exodus 34:5-6)

That is how God identified himself. When he came and descended onto Mount Sinai with Moses, God then proclaimed this about himself as he passed in front of Moses.

“I'm the Lord, the Lord, a God merciful, gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.”
I was thinking about this today and this hypothetical circumstance of God walking up off the street and greeting any one of us to introduce himself. And I was reflecting on how many of us come to know of God with some awareness of his love, but we can lose sight of it as we grow in knowing him.

I'm guessing you're tuning in here to Good God Talks because you want to have uncommon conversations with God. You want that connection, that relationship of being involved in each other's lives. And that's good because you are created for life with God.

You and God belong in each other's lives.

But I think sometimes we can feel like God's love is already a known entity. God loves me. I know that. I'm grateful. But that's already familiar. That's already understood. I need to move on to more significant things, to more advanced topics of knowing him. But the way that God introduces himself, the thing that God proclaims about who he is, is that he is faithful and steadfast in love.

Moses already had been talking with God and walking with Him. He'd partnered with God as God freed the whole nation of Israel from slavery in Egypt. They were already spending this time together. But God didn't say, “Oh well, Moses already knows this about me. I need to share something else with him.”

God's steadfast love is an essential part of who he is. So much so that he proclaims it about himself.

And we see it proclaimed throughout scripture that God's love for us is steadfast.

The passage goes on to say (verse 7) that God keeps steadfast love for thousands, or to a thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but he in no means clears the guilty—which is part of why in his steadfast love, we have salvation and atonement and forgiveness through Jesus.

God's steadfast love for us is an essential part of who he is.

And even understanding that there's so much more that we get to grow in our experience of as we draw closer to God.

Each moment in daily life, God is on display.

He's on display in the world around us as his creation.
He's on display in us as his creation too.
He's on display in scripture.

He's talking with us as our living and active, loyal, loving Father. And I believe God is already proclaiming his steadfast love to us.

In the surroundings you're in. In the circumstances you're walking through, he invites you to know him better. To know him more, through his steadfast love. And so let's ask him about it.

God, will you talk with me? How are you proclaiming your steadfast love for me right now? I want to notice it and know you more.

Have a good talk.

And if you've been encouraged by this content, please share it with a friend and help them grow in their conversational relationship with God too!

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