What is God's Chesed?

“Our faith guarantees us permanent access into this marvellous kindness that has given us a perfect relationship with God. What incredible joy bursts forth within us as we keep on celebrating our hope of experiencing God’s glory!” (Romans 5:2 TPT)

When I was living in the Middle East, a word often used in the Hebrew worship songs was “chesed”. Over the years it really stood out to me. This word is used hundreds of times in the Bible to describe the nature of God, yet we have no English word to communicate its meaning. So, what does chesed mean?

Some of the English words we use to try and explain it are: loving-kindness, grace, faithfulness, favour, goodness, loveliness, mercy, compassion, loyalty, devotion, tenderness, fidelity.

Chesed describes the nature of God’s love for us. Biblically, the word is only used to characterise how those in a covenant relationship behave towards each other. A covenant is an unbreakable oath or promise that binds us to one another. In this context, the word chesed describes God’s love for us as steady, unchanging, persistent, strong, unbreakable, eager, undeserved, forgiving, gracious, merciful, unfailing, unconditional.

It is almost impossible to imagine this is all just one quality of God’s nature. This little Hebrew word means so much! Despite how we behave, nothing we do can change or prevent God from loving us like this. He is merciful, righteous and just and we do not deserve to be loved in this way. Yet He does. As God reveals His chesed towards us, inviting Holy Spirit to lead us into conviction, repentance and forgiveness is one of the ways we can respond. Worship, prayer and meditating on the Bible also increase our awareness of God's chesed nature. But God loves us like this anyway, whether we acknowledge and respond to it or not.

When we choose to put our faith in Jesus, give Him lordship of our life and accept Him as the one who saves and sets us free, we enter into a covenant relationship with the Creator and King of the Universe. We become bound to Him forever. All the promises in the Bible automatically become ours. And we grow with an increasing awareness of God extending His chesed nature to us.

I love these descriptions of chesed:

“Chesed can be compared to that tender yet fiercely protective love a mother has, when she holds her baby in her arms and her heart goes out to it. It’s the love that causes her to say, “I’ll nurse you, little one. I’ll care for you. I’ll teach you all that I know. I’ll see to it that no one harms you.””

“[Chesed is] the compulsion to give and to love without limit those who have no merit.”

“Chesed is the force that rises inside someone, causing them to stand up for the benefit of another.”

“Chesed is driving Him [God] every moment of every day to love you, protect you and give you everything He has.”

Regardless of whether you feel loved like this, dare to believe you are. The Bible says you have permanent access to all aspects of God’s chesed towards you. Do you really believe you have access to God’s chesed? If not, what is getting in the way? Is there something holding you back?

How do you feel about your relationship with God? Would you like to receive more of God’s chesed towards you? What could you do or say today to move closer to Him? Ask God to increase your awareness of His chesed love for you. Invite Him to make His chesed nature a reality in your life.

Father God, thank you for your chesed nature towards me. Thank you, that through Jesus I am bound to you and can always access more of your chesed love. Thank you that no matter what I do or how I behave, your love for me is unchanging, unbreakable and unconditional. I want to know more of you and how you love me. Holy Spirit, increase my awareness of God’s chesed towards me. Convict me where there are things getting in the way or holding me back from receiving the truth of how I am loved by God. Please make God’s chesed nature an increasing reality in my life. In Jesus’ name, amen.

If you would like to discover more about how God sees you, click here.

(Quotes taken from https://blog.kcm.org/what-is-chesed-and-why-you-need-to-know/)