Monday 31st
Jeremiah 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 unfailing kindness.”’
ESV – ‘. . . the LORD appeared to him from far away. I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.’
‘Loved with everlasting love.’
G. Wade Robinson RH 380
This one of my favourite hymns, it is a hymn that reminds us that we are loved with an everlasting love, a love which has impacted our lives, and has also had an impact on our outlook on life. It is a love which we would know nothing about except by the grace of God, it is a love we did not deserve, but by the grace of God, and it is a love which we cannot fully comprehend but by the grace of God, it is a love that I am so glad that I have come to know. The song reminds us that once we have been captivated by the everlasting Love of God, we see everything in a completely new way as expressed in the second verse, ‘Heaven above is softer blue, earth around is sweeter green, something lives in every hue, Christlike eyes have never seen . . .’ It amazes me that there are those who are so heavily involved in the natural world, who marvel at the wonder and the beauty of creation and yet they fail to see the Great Creator behind it all, they have to try and attempt to find another cause, but for us whose eyes and hearts have been opened to the wonderful love of God, we see behind it all the Creator God who not only created it all but also sustains it. That is the difference between men and women who have been captivated by God’s love and those who choose to spurn it, even to deny it.
The hymnal has the verse as quoted above from Jeremiah 31:3 which continues to talk of the faithfulness of God, because of God’s everlasting love, there stems also his continuing faithfulness from it, this reminds me that because he has set his love upon us and within us, he will never fail us or let us down, the day will come when all will be no more, ‘heaven and earth may fade and flee, firstborn light in gloom decline, but, while God and I shall be, I am his and he is mine’, that is the wonder of this everlasting love, it is an unending love that will endure through whatever life may throw at us, because of his great faithfulness.
The third verse should be a means of comfort to us, it reminds us that because of God’s everlasting love and the fact that we have come to know and to receive it we are to be found in a place of safety, ‘closed in everlasting arms.’
Paul reminds us of this amazing, incredible and everlasting love in his letter to the Church at Rome, Romans 8 of which I will remind us, ‘Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.’ (vv35-39)
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.
Heaven above is softer blue,
Earth around is sweeter green;
Something lives in every hue
Christless eyes have never seen:
Birds with gladder songs o’erflow,
Flow’rs with deeper beauties shine,
Since I know, as now I know,
I am His, and He is mine.
Things that once were wild alarms
Cannot now disturb my rest;
Closed in everlasting arms,
Pillowed on the loving breast.
Oh, to lie forever here,
Doubt and care and self resign,
While He whispers in my ear,
I am His, and He is mine.
His forever, only His:
Who the Lord and me shall part?
Ah, with what a rest of bliss
Christ can fill the loving heart.
Heaven and earth may fade and flee,
Firstborn light in gloom decline;
But, while God and I shall be,
I am His, and He is mine.