With everlasting love I have loved you
“The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.”Jeremiah 31:3
Reflection
Notice the adjective that qualifies God’s love: "EVERLASTING love". The word changes everything. Human love, however sincere, tends to have a beginning and an end — it is born for a reason and can die for another. We love because the person is attractive, kind, useful, pleasant; and when those reasons change, love cools. But God’s love is of another nature: it is everlasting, which means it had no beginning and will have no end. He did not begin to love you the day you behaved well, and He will not stop the day you fail. Everlasting love has no trigger and no expiration date.
This answers a question that torments many people: "does God still love me after everything I have done?". The answer is in the word "everlasting". If God’s love for you depended on your performance, it would not be everlasting — it would be conditional, wavering, earned. But precisely because it is everlasting, it does not depend on you. God does not love you because you are good enough; He loves you because LOVING is who He is. And a love that did not begin because of your merits will not end because of your failures either. That is the deepest security a soul can have.
The second part of the verse is equally beautiful: "with lovingkindness have I drawn thee". Notice the order — love comes FIRST, and the drawing comes as a consequence ("therefore"). God did not wait for you to draw near in order to love you; He loved you first and, because of that love, drew you with kindness. Every move of yours toward God is, in fact, a response to a love that was already there before, pulling you with "cords of kindness". You did not earn God’s love by seeking Him; you sought Him because His love was already drawing you. The initiative was always His.
Pay attention also to "with LOVINGKINDNESS have I drawn thee". God does not draw people with threat, blackmail or fear — He draws with kindness. It is love, not terror, that truly changes a heart. How often do we try to draw near to God out of fear of punishment, when He wants to draw us with tenderness? Genuine repentance is not born of dread, but of the realization of being loved like this, without deserving it. Today, if you have doubted God’s love because of your mistakes, hear the declaration that crosses the centuries: "with everlasting love I have loved thee". It is not a love you must earn nor one you can lose. It simply is — everlasting, unconditional, and already extended to you before you even thought of seeking it.
Prayer
Lord, thank You that Your love for me is EVERLASTING — it did not begin because of my merits and does not end because of my failures. Forgive me when I doubt it because of my mistakes. Help me draw near to You not out of fear, but drawn by Your kindness. I rest in this truth: with everlasting love You have loved me. Amen.
Put it into practice
Whenever the doubt strikes today, "does God still love me after what I did?", answer aloud with the truth of the verse: "with everlasting love He has loved me" — a love that does not depend on my performance and has no expiration date.
To reflect on
Have you been trying to EARN God’s love (or fearing to lose it) — when it is everlasting, came first and does not depend on your performance?
Bible text: King James Version (public domain).