"I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness." Jeremiah 31:3
Sometimes human love fails. In 1908, when he was 26 years old, the Hungarian musician Bela Bartok began to compose a violin concerto for his lady friend, a violinist. But by the time he had finished it, his beloved had married somebody else. She accepted the concerto as a gift but laid it away and never looked at it. It was not found until after her death in 1956.
Divine love is not like human love. God’s love is not subject to changes – to whims, unstable emotions, or a change of heart. God declares through Jeremiah: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness.” And through Isaiah, this: “Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet My unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor My covenant of peace be removed” (Isaiah 54:10).
The apostle John follows through on these declarations of God’s love, saying: “This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins”: (1 John 4:9-10). What gives God’s love such validity is the permanence of it. What Saint John wrote of God’s love nearly 2,000 years ago is still true. We can rely on it.
After the example of God’s love, we too remain steadfast in our love to God and to one another – that should be our concern. Love that changes with the wind is worthless. Abiding love is precious. Gifts of love – whether Bartok’s violin concerto or any other expression of love – are to be appreciated and put to good use. That is what God wants. He desires that we pass on His love, and that we can do only if we cling to it ourselves.
PRAYER: Thank You, Lord God, for Your lasting love to me in Jesus Christ. Help me to strengthen my love to You and to people around me. Amen.
(Devotions from "With Jesus Every Day" copyright 1997, CPH. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be printed, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission of Concordia Publishing House. Permission is granted for one-time emailing of this link to a friend. For information on other devotional material, please contact CPH at 800-325-3040 or visit CPH at www.cph.org.)
Today's Bible Readings: Joshua 19-21 Luke 11:29-54
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