SCRIPTURE: "The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee." Jeremiah 31:3 (KJV)

"Yea I have loved thee with an everlasting love;"

God's love is like Himself: Sovereign, Unchangeable, and Everlasting. He says, "I have loved thee". Think of it! The Almighty God, the Creator of the ends of the Earth, the King of kings and Lord of lords; The God of infinite purity and holiness; He who does whatever He pleases both in heaven and in Earth; The Great I AM that changes not: "loved" - not only now, but shall hereafter; not for some time past only, but for all eternity; not only has He loved, will He love, but with that same love, does He love us now! ETERNAL, EVERLASTING . . . Oh, I cannot fathom such wonderful love, can you?

Vile and sinful are we; transgressors from the womb - and yet, openly and through the evidence of the spirit: we are loved "with an everlasting love"! Oh my friend, can you grasp this magnificent Word here this morning? Get this . . . God's love for you and me was from everlasting. That means that it didn't commence in time with our faith, repentance and new obedience(although they were the fruits of his love for us and our response to such love). But His love was from all eternity and through the eternal everlasting covenant made with mankind on the person of Jesus Christ. His love will endure to everlasting without any variation or change. Is that a powerful WORD or what?

He goes on...

". . . therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee;"

Imagine if you will, being in captivity, and working your fingers to the bone. Imagine being in a heathen land that wars against your spirit where the daily decadence of the sin-nature is all about you enticing you to sin and live a life that is unpleasing to the God of your youth - let alone the God of your parents and your parents parents. This is where the children of Israel were; in a state of natural man; in the grips of Satan's works of iniquity; out of the pit wherein is no water, the horrible pit, the mire and clay. How devastating and cold; how dark it must have been.

It was for them, and all of us today who are in a similar world of darkness, that Christ came. Can you see the parallel? From the depths of captivity in a world that beats a pathway to our heart's door on a daily basis, testing and taunting us to sin - came Christ - the evidence of God's eternal Love! Oh how He loves you and me! This is Our Father's act regarding the work of conversion and the influence of His Divine Grace. Even through the supposed weaknesses of mankind, especially through the supposed weaknesses of mankind - He draws us through the power of His Holy Spirit. It is this love that draws our soul to Christ, and manifests that love to others through the declarations of His grace in our lives. Lives set free from our once miserable "captive state"; lives of despair and certain death and destruction, to the everlasting freedom of the Gospel.

It doesn't matter what you are going through today. Your heritage in Christ is to experience God's everlasting love right where you are. Even now, in the midst of some of the deepest sorrow and the darkest most desperate times of your life . . .through His precious Holy Spirit He is drawing you to Him. What will your answer be? Repeat the following verses as your prayer this morning will you? Mean it from your heart.

Out of my bondage, sorrow and night,
Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come;
Into thy freedom, gladness and light,
Jesus, I come to thee;
Out of my sickness into thy health,
Out of my want and into thy wealth,
Out of my sin and into thyself,
Jesus, I come to thee.

Out of my shameful failure and loss,
Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come;
Into the glorious gain of thy cross,
Jesus, I come to thee;
Out of earth's sorrows into thy balm,
Out of life's storms and into thy calm,
Out of distress to jubilant psalm,
Jesus, I come to thee.