TODAY’S SIGNATURE VERSE ••• I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you. (Jeremiah 31:3b ESV)
PRAISE & PRAYER PROMPT ••• Have you ever played one of those “Get to Know You” lists on Facebook? I don’t do them often, but yesterday, I posted one. I won’t list all 40 answers, but here’s an excerpt so we’re all on the same page:
- What do you drink in the morning? Coffee
- Can you change a tire? No, but I can beg sweetly…
- Ever gone skydiving? If indoor skydiving counts, then yes.
- Pumpkin or pecan pie? Yes
- Something quirky about me. I have to have the volume set on even numbers or numbers divisible by five.
So as you can see—it’s just a fun way to get to know others and invite other people to know you better.
And we all want to be known. We want to feel that people around us see us and understand us and know us and accept us—even when we have to adjust the volume to 16 or 18 because our family and friends callously spin the volume dial to 17 with reckless abandon like crazy people.
Not that such a thing ever happens or gives me anxiety…
In Jeremiah 31, God spoke to the people of Israel. He said, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you” (Jeremiah 31:3b).
God’s words… “I have loved you with an everlasting love.” Isn’t that the most beautiful declaration? The word-nerd in me absolutely loves that sentence and the Jesus-girl in me embraces it wholeheartedly. Because the Gentiles who believe in Jesus have been grafted onto the family tree of Jesus, we are a part of His chosen people too. And those words of love apply to us.
So when we want to be known, seen, understood, and accepted—even with our flaws and quirks—we have this truth—God has loved us with an everlasting love. Even before we were born, we were known and loved (Psalm 139:16; Jeremiah 1:5).
God doesn’t need a “Get to Know You” list to know us. He knows us better than we know ourselves! And because He loves us so much, He lets us choose. He wants us to choose Him because of His love for us, but true love doesn’t demand or force anything. True love will always give freedom to choose.
So even on your worst, most unlovable days, God is loving you and waiting for you to choose.
The sad reality is that many choose the temporary over the eternal. They are throwing away happiness and security with both hands and reaching for cheap alternatives to the genuine, everlasting love of Christ.
But you… will you choose Him? Will you choose the one who loves you with an everlasting love? Will you choose a love so strong that Jesus died in your place so that you don’t have to?
It’s a choice we make once and we are secure, but that doesn’t mean we’re passive from that point on. Each day, we have to choose to walk in that love. Every day, we have to choose to let Jesus shine through us. And every day, we have to choose to yield and obey the One who loves us with an everlasting love.
What are you choosing today?
Today, as you pray, thank God for His everlasting love. Ask the Holy Spirit to guide you today with your choices. Ask Him to help you always choose what is honoring and obedient to God.
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