‘The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.’” (Exodus 34:5-7).
Just as His love is “over the top”, in the same way, His faithfulness is abounding. He will not forget or fail us. If you are like me, you forget things all the time. But God never forgets. “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! (Isaiah 49:15). I just chuckled a little when I read the following verse (16) that says that He has “engraved us on the palms of His hands.” It makes me think of many of us Moms who write on our hands not to forget to do something for our children; like pick them up at school! Somehow I don’t think that God has written us on the palms of His hands so that He won’t forget to do something for us! God hears our prayers and is at work to bring about His will for our lives that is for our good and to prosper us (Jeremiah 29:11). He is faithful to fulfill all the promises in His Word. Well sisters, in God’s very first CLEAR description of Himself, He makes sure to tell us that He is faithful!
Let’s look at the line in the Exodus passage that He is “slow to anger.” Was this the experience that you had with your parents and other authority figures in your life? If not, it will be very easy for you to project onto God this characteristic of being quick to anger. In fact, this is a big part of our struggle. So often, without realizing it, we project onto God the very characteristics of our parents. This is why James and Paul warn us to be “slow to anger” (James 1:19), “not easily angered” (I Corinthians 13:5), and to “not exasperate our children (Ephesians 6:4). Not only is this hard on our kids, but it is forming in their childlike minds an im- age of God the Father that He is quick to be angry, impatient, harsh, unjust, unkind, unforgiving, or ungracious. We have a responsibility to represent to our children the love, grace, patience, forgiveness, and kindness of God. Thus, when they grow up, they will more easily trust in the character of God to be all that He says He is in Exodus and throughout Scripture!
-Sue Corl (Founder of COBI; read this full chapter and more in her devotional More Beautiful by the Day)
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