The Hesed Invitation

Hello, again, dear fellow pilgrim. As we journey through the beginning of this new uncertain year, we are taking time to look at the things that are certain, the immovable, unchanging character of God. This is our second week looking long into the heart of God’s hesed love. Hesed is a Hebrew word used to describe God’s tender mercy, compassion, and lovingkindness. To read Part One of our study of the hesed character of God, click here.

God extends His hesed invitation to every person, written in flowing script upon cultures and people groups throughout the world.

Your honored presence is requested

by the One who loves you with endless mercy and compassion.

Come as you are.

The hesed invitation transcends language and time, for it speaks to the universal desire of the human heart to be loved. We have a nagging, unshakeable hunch deep within our souls that we were made to love and be loved. And we will do anything to prove it.

My friend and colleague Carrie Gaul joins us this week as we continue to examine the hesed love of God for you and me. Carrie describes herself as God’s Stretcher-Bearer, one who brings the broken and hurting to the Healer. And indeed, she has borne me and countless others upon her stretcher time and time again. With humility and power, gentleness and strength, she helps us see what may have been hidden to us before. She helps us heal. Take time to read slow, to notice well, to listen deep for your invitation today from the Lord of hesed, the one who longs to heal you and give you peace.

 

 

 

When Audrey first shared with me her experience of the Hesed Room, I wept at the unfathomable kindness of God to create within the culture of Moroccan women such a magnificent image of His unwavering love. As they run to hanan—the unconditionally available tenderness of love, kindness, mercy, and grace—they are experiencing a tiny glimmer of God’s hesed love for them.

Michael Card says “Hesed marks the transition from despair to hope, from emptiness to a new possibility of becoming filled once more.”¹

Moroccan women are not alone in needing the hope of such love. We too, as followers of Jesus, experience an inconsolable longing for a place, a person, a secure relationship—where we are known and yet welcomed, known and accepted, known and relentlessly loved.

O God, you are my God, and I long for you. My whole being desires you…Your constant love [hesed] is better than life itself… (Psalm 63:1-3 GNT).

In his book, The Other Half of Church, neuro-theologian Jim Wilder describes hesed as relational attachment. “Attachment glues people together … and is a life-giving forever bond with no mechanism in the brain to unglue us.” ²

Imagine awakening each morning assured that nothing could ever unglue you from the #hesed love of God. #compassion #mercy #love Click To Tweet

“For the mountains may be removed and the hills may shake. But My lovingkindness (hesed) will not be removed from you. And My covenant of peace will not be shaken,” says the Lord who has compassion on you (Isaiah 54:10).

I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8: 38-39).

Would you consider reading again these truths of God’s hesed lovingkindness?

“For the mountains may be removed and the hills may shake. But My lovingkindness (hesed) will not be removed from you. And My covenant of peace will not be shaken,” says the Lord who has compassion on you (Isaiah 54:10).

I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8: 38-39).

Notice the ways you experience this as hope in your present realities.

Notice any places that may be resistant to hope. Ask the Lord about those places. Does it seem more natural for you to receive these promises as facts or with a sense of relational connection to God?

Hesed is an invitation to know experientially (the Hebrew word is yada) the truth we believe and proclaim.

This is a journey of discovering places in our hearts that are not yet able to receive hesed love. God calls them obstacles.

Remove every obstacle out of the way of My people (Isaiah 57: 14).

I have returned again and again to Isaiah 57, asking the Lord to give me His understanding of this passage of Scripture. As is often His way, He began by uncovering obstacles in my own heart.

One obstacle became apparent as I read the “wee-little man who climbed up in a Sycamore tree” story to our one-year-old grandson, Joshua.

Joshua’s face danced with delight as we mimicked Zacchaeus’ eagerness to see Jesus from his tree-perch high above the crowds. But delight quickly morphed into furrowed brows and wagging fingers as we echoed Jesus’ words. “Zacchaeus, you come down!” Our tone and facial expressions left little doubt, Zacchaeus was in a heap of trouble with Jesus!

Why do you believe I was angry, Carrie?

The question came so gently to my mind.

My heart raced to answer, “

Well, he was in a tree—no, that’s crazy. He was a tax-collector—nope, tax-collectors can become disciples.

Suddenly it occurred to me.

You were angry because Zacchaeus was a sinner!

I sat in silence—astonished by the obstacle the Spirit of God had gently uncovered in my heart. No wonder anxiety rose like a wave in my chest when I read these words,

I have seen his ways, but I will heal him, I will lead him and restore comfort to him and to his mourners (Isaiah 57:18).

If God has seen my ways and is angry at sinners—if He wags His finger in utter frustration with them—then naturally I will hide from Him my places of struggle.

Jesus used a simple children’s song that night to identify an obstacle that had long existed in this Grammy’s heart—an obstacle that kept a part of my heart from experiencing the truth I know and love and teach. I was afraid to come to Him because of my sin, even after having received His forgiveness all those years ago when I chose to follow Him.

As Jesus tenderly removed that obstacle a fresh awareness of hesed love flowed like a river of Living Water into my soul. We ended story-time that night singing and dancing in joy and utter delight “Zacchaeus, you come down! For I’m going to your house today.”

As you journey more deeply into the hesed heart of our God, I pray these resources will be a source of encouragement to you:

1. Inexpressible: Hesed and the Mystery of God’s Lovingkindness by Michael Card
2. The Other Half of Church: Christian Community, Brain Science, and Overcoming Spiritual Stagnation by Jim Wilder and Michael Hendricks
3. Gentle and Lowly: The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers by Dane Ortlund

 

Lord, show me the obstacles that keep me from accepting Your hesed invitation. Amen.

 

Carrie serves on staff with Revive Our Hearts as Liaison for International Outreach and Staff Care and as a Fellow with The Truth Collective. She is a speaker and author of Joy in the Midst, a study of Philippians.

Carrie’s heart is to help women across the globe embrace the truths of God’s Word and experience more of the abundant life Jesus gives. 

Carrie has been married to her high-school sweetheart for forty years. They have two married children and loving being Grammy and Papa to two grandsons.