Today I am reminded from Jonah chapter 4 of the steadfast love of the LORD our God who is merciful, gracious, and slow to anger.
I first came across such a description of our Heavenly Father one morning many years ago in 1978, when I was studying in my Upper Form Six, from Psalm 103 verses 8 to 14.
- Jonah 4:2 NRSV New Revised Standard Version
- He prayed to the LORD and said, ‘O LORD! Is not this what I said while I was still in my own country? That is why I fled to Tarshish at the beginning; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing.
- Psalm 103:8 - 14 RSV Revised Standard Version
- 8 The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
- 9 He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger for ever.
- 10 He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor requite us according to our iniquities.
- 11 For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
- 12 as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
- 13 As a father pities his children, so the LORD pities those who fear him.
- 14 For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.
Brothers and Sisters in the Anointed One, let us always abide in the steadfast love of God our Father in Heaven.
