“The LORD appeared to us in the past,saying:
“I have loved you with an everlasting love;
I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.”- Jeremiah 31:3
You are loved by the LORD. Think about it, the LORD GOD, Creator of the heavens and earth, He is self-existent, in need of nothing outside of Himself to satisfy Him, sustain Him, inform Him, comfort Him. He is perfect, unchanging, Sovereign King. He has no needs! He does what He wants when He wants. He does as He pleases-{Psalm 135:6}. We are needy, defiled by sin, dominated by it, dead in our sin. Without hope, without ability to seek God, desire God in and of ourselves. We are hopelessly lost without Him, like blind men who cannot find their way. And yet we read of His reaching to and drawing us into His realm of Love from a heart that is pure and perfect. We the defiled, have been drawn into this Love. We had nothing to offer Him. We had nothing to appeal to Him in and of ourselves. So where did this love come from? Why did this love come to you, to me, to all believers?
The LORD initiated His love for you. He has always loved you!
John would later write,“we love Him Because He FIRST loved us.”-{1 John 4:19}. The LORD initiated His love for you. Before He created the heavens or the earth He had loved you! He initiates and He maintains His love for you. His love for you is everlasting. It is steady, unchanging. He has loved you- always has always will! His love was not and is not a momentary love, but from “everlasting” beginning in the counsel of God and going on in its continuance forever and ever and ever, without end! As long as God is so long is His love for you! God has made a promise and He fulfills His promises.
He used His unfailing kindness to draw you into a love relationship with Him and the realization of His love for you. He personally has undertaken for you. His is a sustaining love for you- everlasting love; He has drawn you- with unfailing kindness. Meditate upon His love for you. His initiating. His choice of you based solely on His desire. How great and personal is His love for you! You did not earn it, you can never be severed from it, for God is the One who has gifted you with His love, and this gift will never be withdrawn, it is everlasting! You are now, and always will be loved everlastingly by Him,”In Christ.”
He has drawn us from the deadness of our sin and given us spiritual light and life by His love through Jesus Christ. He has drawn us from the dominion of darkness and the bondage of satan transferring us to the kingdom of His beloved Son. He has drawn us into fellowship with His Son! He has drawn us with unfailing kindness. How deep and great the Love of God is for you and me and the cross demonstrates such love, “But God demonstrated His love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us… see what love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called children of God and such we are…This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.”-{Romans 5:8-9; 1 John 3:1; 1 John 4″10}. The love of the LORD. The Goodness, Kindness of the LORD relayed to us in His Word and through His Son.
“I have loved you with an everlasting love;
I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.”
BUT WHAT IF I DON’T “FEEL” HE LOVES ME?
Do you think you have the power to stop His love for you, through ever changing “feelings?” Do you think He is a servant to your feelings, as though He must wait on you to know if He can love you today? Your feelings are not in charge, the LORD is!
Martin Luther wrote, “Feelings come and feelings go, my trust is in the Written word nought else is worth believing!” Think on the Truth of His Word. His Word is perfect. His Word is forever settled in Heaven.
Even the darkest of times we may go through do not diminish His love for us. Even our waywardness , wanderings and sin cannot quench the love of God for us! How wonderful the love of God. One day He will draw us from this world to be with Him forever and ever to bask in His love, no more pain, sorrow, sadness or sin. But Himself the delight of our heart, the endless praise of our being. To be with Him, is Heaven itself. So we comfort one another with the truth…
The LORD has said,…
“I have loved you…”
I have drawn you…”
Who has and does love you? The LORD! Who has drawn you? The LORD! Who should the spotlight be on? THE LORD!
THINK on Him- His love for you THANK Him for His love for you and drawing you to Himself TRUST The One who Loves you TELL someone of the Love of the LORD
Hide this verse in your heart….. write it out on a 3 by 5 card, put in a place where you will see it, perhaps on a bathroom mirror so you can see and be reminded of the truth. Or perhaps carry with you and when you have free moments, look at the verse and meditate upon it word for word, phrase for phrase, and PRAISE Him and REST in the LOVE of God for you!
An Irish pastor, George Morrison wrote this Hymn in 1876, at the age of 39, one year before he died and in it he proclaims his confidence in God- the Vastness of the Love of God, the security he found in Him, His love!
“Loved with EVERLASTING LOVE,
Led by grace that love to know;
Spirit, breathing from above,
Thou hast taught me it is so.
Oh, this full and perfect peace!
Oh, this transport all divine!
IN A LOVE WHICH CANNOT CEASE,
I AM HIS AND HE IS MINE.”