I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you. Jeremiah 31:3
An unknown author described God’s love as a stream that never freezes, a fountain that never runs dry, and a sun that never sets. Failure to recognize the unchanging love of God has driven many people to despair.
D. L. Moody once commented, “I know of no truth in the whole Bible that ought to come home to us with such power and tenderness as that of the love of God. Satan constantly tries to persuade men and women that the Lord does not love them. He succeeded in making our first parents believe that lie, and too often he succeeds with us.”
Moody continued, “Because your child is fretful or has committed some act of disobedience, you do not cast him out as though he did not belong to you. So too, when we go astray, it does not follow that God despises us. It’s the sin that He hates.”
What Jeremiah wrote to Israel about the everlasting love of God is just as true for His people today. He never lets us go, and His compassion never disappoints us.
No matter how unsettling our circumstances, life is still worth living when we take God’s reassuring words to heart: “I have loved you with an everlasting love.”
How wonderful to know that He
Who watches from above,
Will always keep us sheltered in
His ever-present love. —King
Man’s love has limits;
God’s love is limitless.
1 “At the same time,” says the Lord, “I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be My people.” 2 Thus says the Lord: “The people who survived the sword found grace in the wilderness—Israel, when I went to give him rest.” 3 The Lord has appeared of old to me, saying: “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you. 4 Again I will build you, and you shall be rebuilt, O virgin of Israel! You shall again be adorned with your tambourines, and shall go forth in the dances of those who rejoice. 5 You shall yet plant vines on the mountains of Samaria; the planters shall plant and eat them as ordinary food. 6 For there shall be a day when the watchmen will cry on Mount Ephraim, ‘Arise, and let us go up to Zion, to the Lord our God.’” 7 For thus says the Lord: “Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout among the chief of the nations; proclaim, give praise, and say, ‘O Lord, save Your people, the remnant of Israel!’
Insight
The pictures of God’s love in verse 3 are rich indeed. It is an active love (“I have loved”) that God directs toward His children. It is an eternal love (“everlasting”) that has no end, and it is a love that draws us into relationship with Him. As we read in John 3:16, all these things are still true—“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
