Jesus Loves Me, This I Know – What She Said #15 – Week 4, Day 2

TODAY'S TREASURE

But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end.

Lamentations 3:21-22 ESV

Transcript

What She Said #15

Jesus Loves Me, This I Know

Guest Writer, Lauri A. Hogle

Today’s Treasure

But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end.

Lamentations 3:21-22 ESV

In the heavy weight of ongoing and chronic suffering, it’s easy to doubt God’s love for us. It’s an age-old question, deriving from the Genesis 3 fall with Satan’s hiss, “Did God actually say?”

The Old Testament is filled with honest laments, agony-prayers of His suffering children. In all but one (Psalm 88), they turn around into praise of who God says He is. I’m suffering, “but I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.”

I desperately needed these laments and turnarounds as a young mother with eight years of an undiagnosed, systemic, and progressively disabling illness.

Our loving and compassionate Lord “knows our frame.” He provided song after song to this hurting and frightened mommy who needed to “call to mind” His love for me. Wee Sing Bible Songs played on repeat as our toddler and infant twin daughters grew up playing in a baby-gated playroom with easy access to food and water. I could dip in and out of consciousness on the floor with them and survive with pages of untreatable symptoms…and yet know our Lord was holding us safe in His care. His love songs for those unified with Christ filled the air with turnarounds to Biblical truth into my tears and fears. Our daughters’ singing simple Scriptural songs became His love songs…to me:

Jesus loves me, this I know,

for the Bible tells me so…

Yes, Jesus loves me!

The Bible tells me so.

Lament songs in Scripture often praise God for His love, a defining love unique to only God, a kind we can’t adequately translate from the Hebrew hesed. It’s loving-kindness, steadfast, enduring, unfailing, covenant, loyal, merciful, compassionate, faithful, unconditional, grace-filled, just, righteous, eternal, never-ending, perfect love! We don’t even have words for God’s hesed love, but it encompasses God’s holy essence. 

I’m suffering…and loved with everlasting love

Loved with everlasting love,

drawn by grace that love to know,

Spirit sent from Christ above,

thou dost witness it is so…

Turnarounds also flowed from hymns and songs I’d shared as a church musician, playing organ and piano, directing choirs, a daily rhythm of practicing His loving surround-sound to help church congregations sing. Thousands of His love songs toward me in Christ filled my thoughts, His gift to help me endure. 

O this full and precious peace

from his presence all divine;

In a love that cannot cease,

I am his and he is mine.

For as we read of His hesed, or love, in the Old Testament laments, we now see it displayed on the cross. 

What wondrous love is this

that caused the Lord of bliss

to bear the dreadful curse for my soul, for my soul,

to bear the dreadful curse for my soul!

I’m suffering…and I am His and He is mine

Beloved in Christ, Jesus is how we know His love still endures for us as we suffer. Because God brought you into a covenantal relationship with Jesus, God’s hesed love for you…is as Your Father.

Taste the goodness of the Lord:

welcomed home to his embrace,

all his love, as blood outpoured,

seals the pardon of his grace.

Can I doubt his love for me,

when I trace that love's design?

By the cross of Calvary

I am his and he is mine.

LIFE-GIVING ENCOURAGEMENT

Are you like me? I still need constant, daily reminders. Especially now that my serious illness and severe pain have worsened again. “Let me hear in the morning of your steadfast love.” 

What song-gift sings to your hurting heart of our salvation in Christ? What’s a song of adoration that you could weakly sing back to our Lord Jesus as you walk through suffering? That’s His “suffering song” of love for you today. 

PRAYER

Father, please provide Your “suffering songs” of hesed love to me today. Point me to them as ones to sing to You and to my hurting heart. Give me Your playlist of love, on repeat, to help me endure this pain. In Jesus’ name of love itself, amen. 

This devotion is adapted from Near to God: A Devotional Bible Study of God’s Character in Our Suffering.

(1) “Jesus Loves Me, This I Know,” Warner, A. B., 1859

(2) “I am His and He is Mine,” Robinson, W., 1890

(3) “What Wondrous Love is This,” anon., p.d.