Moving Forward - 30 January 2025

THURSDAY, January 30

Psalm 118:1 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his mercy endures forever.

If you’ve been reading these devotional messages all month, you may have noticed that I like to use exclamation points, maybe a little too much! In some translations, this verse ends with the use of an exclamation point. That caught my attention, especially because there aren’t that many exclamation points in the Bible. The Hebrew word that has been translated here as “mercy” is chesed. There is no English equivalent, so chesed is also translated as loving- kindness, steadfast love, compassion, or goodness.

Chesed is an attribute or quality God possesses. It is part of God’s very nature. God is love (1 John 4:1b), and everything God does flows from love.

First, God chose a people to love and then extended that fullness of love to the entire world through God’s own son, Jesus. God’s love is so wide and long and deep and high that we can’t even name it or truly understand it (Ephesians 3:18-19), but we can experience it. And that’s something to get excited about!!

MOVING FORWARD: To what other passages would you add an exclamation point?

PRAY for the Missionary Area of Lodwar (Kenya)

Ps 50 * [59,60] or 118 | Isaiah 49:13-23 | Galatians 3:1-14 | Mark 6:30-46

(Source: Forward Day by Day Movement)