Jeremiah 31:3 - God's Great Love!

Jer.31:3; God's Great Love!

Jer 31:3 (NIV)  The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying: "I 
have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with 
loving-kindness.  

The most powerful scriptural metaphor for our journey is the 
desert sojourn of the Hebrews.  In the desert they expressed all the 
traits of the addicted personality.  They experienced the stress and 
fear of withdrawal symptoms, longing for the old days of slavery.  
They hoarded more of their manna than they needed, and it rotted.  
They deceived themselves with idolatry and excuses.  They made 
resolutions to obey God's commandments, only to backslide when left to 
themselves.  They acted in self-centered, narcissistic, manipulative ways, 
with self-images so eroded that at times they wished they had died in 
slavery. 
Yet through it all, God guided the people of Israel, protected 
them, suffered over them, commanded them and raged at them, 
continually inviting and empowering them to choose to trust and to love. 
The desert is where battle with attachment takes place.  The 
saga depicts a journey out of slavery, through the desert, and toward 
the garden that is home.  But it is much more than a journey; it is 
the discovery of the depths of weakness, the power of grace, and the 
price of both. 
Moreover, what takes place in the desert is not simply difficult 
travel and adventurous learning; it is repentance and conversion, the 
transforming of mixed motives into purified desire, the greening of desert 
into garden through the living water of grace.  There is no 
geographic journey here; it all takes place within our hearts.  And we are 
not only purged and purified, but we are allowed to begin a loving 
courtship, a homemaking between the human soul and its Creator.  [Gerald G. 
May; Recovery Devotional Bible] 

If an angel should fly from heaven and inform the saint 
personally of the Saviour's love to him, the evidence would not be one whit 
more satisfactory than that which is borne in the heart by the Holy 
Ghost. Ask those of the Lord's people who have lived the nearest to the 
gates of heaven, and they will tell you that they have had seasons 
when the love of Christ towards them has been a fact so clear and 
sure, that they could no more doubt it than they could question their 
own existence. Yes, beloved believer, you and I have had times of 
refreshing from the presence of the Lord, and then our faith has mounted to 
the topmost heights of assurance. We have had confidence to lean our 
heads upon the bosom of our Lord, and we have no more questioned our 
Master's affection to us than John did when in that blessed posture; nay, 
nor so much: for the dark question, "Lord, is it I that shall betray 
thee?" has been put far from us. He has kissed us with the kisses of 
his mouth, and killed our doubts by the closeness of his embrace. 
His love has been sweeter than wine to our souls. [Spurgeon, Charles 
H., Morning and Evening]  

"I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the 
Lord God: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye." Ezekiel 18:32. 
Satan is ready to steal away the blessed assurances of God. He desires 
to take every glimmer of hope and every ray of light from the soul; 
but you must not permit him to do this. Do not give ear to the 
tempter, but say, "Jesus has died that I might live. He loves me, and 
wills not that I should perish. I have a compassionate heavenly 
Father; and although I have abused His love, though the blessings He has 
given me have been squandered, I will arise, and go to my Father, and 
say, 'I have sinned against heaven, and before Thee, and am no more 
worthy to be called Thy son: make me as one of Thy hired servants.'" 
The parable tells you how the wanderer will be received: "When he 
was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and 
ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him." Luke 15:18-20.  
But even this parable, tender and touching as it is, comes short 
of expressing the infinite compassion of the heavenly Father. The 
Lord declares by His prophet, "I have loved thee with an everlasting 
love: therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee. Jeremiah 31:3. 
While the sinner is yet far from the Father's house, wasting his 
substance in a strange country, the Father's heart is yearning over him; 
and every longing awakened in the soul to return to God is but the 
tender pleading of His Spirit, wooing, entreating, drawing the wanderer 
to his Father's heart of love.  
With the rich promises of the Bible before you, can you give 
place to doubt? Can you believe that when the poor sinner longs to 
return, longs to forsake his sins, the Lord sternly withholds him from 
coming to His feet in repentance? Away with such thoughts! Nothing can 
hurt your own soul more than to entertain such a conception of our 
heavenly Father. He hates sin, but He loves the sinner, and He gave 
Himself in the person of Christ, that all who would might be saved and 
have eternal blessedness in the kingdom of glory. What stronger or 
more tender language could have been employed than He has chosen in 
which to express His love toward us? He declares, "Can a woman forget 
her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of 
her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee." Isaiah 
49:15.  
Look up, you that are doubting and trembling; for Jesus lives to 
make intercession for us. Thank God for the gift of His dear Son and 
pray that He may not have died for you in vain. The Spirit invites 
you today. Come with your whole heart to Jesus, and you may claim 
His blessing.  SC53-55