Jeremiah-31:3-14-nkjv

For Reading and Meditation:     Jeremiah 31:1-12

"How little real love there is for God," says theologian Arthur W. Pink. He suggests that this and the resulting low level of spirituality in today's Church are caused by our hearts being so little occupied with thoughts of the divine love. "The better we are acquainted with His love," he says, "- its character, its...

For Reading and Meditation:     1 John 4:7-16

We turn now to consider another aspect of God's nature and character - love. There are three things told us in Scripture concerning the nature of God. First, "God is spirit" (John 4:24), which means He has no visible substance. Second, "God is light" (

"Their soul shall be as a watered garden." Jeremiah 31:12

Oh, to have one's soul under heavenly cultivation; no longer a wilderness but a garden of the LORD! Enclosed from the waste, walled around by grace, planted by instruction, visited by love, weeded by heavenly discipline, and guarded by divine power, one's favored soul is prepared to yield fruit unto the LORD.

But a garden may become parched for want of water, and...

"My people shall be satisfied with My goodness, saith the LORD." Jeremiah 31:14

Note the "My" which comes twice: "My people shall be satisfied with My goodness."

The kind of people who are satisfied with God are marked out as God's own. He is pleased with them, for they are pleased with Him. They call Him their God, and He calls them His people; He is satisfied to take them for a portion, and they are satisfied with Him...

Sometimes the Lord Jesus tells his Church his love thoughts. "He does not think it enough behind her back to tell it, but in her very presence he says, 'Thou art all fair, my love.' It is true, this is not his ordinary method; he is a wise lover, and knows when to keep back the intimation of love and when to let it out; but there are times when he will make no secret of it; times when he will put it beyond all dispute in the souls of his people" (R. Erskine's Sermons). The Holy Spirit is...

The thunders of the law and the terrors of judgment are all used to bring us to Christ; but the final victory is effected by lovingkindness. The prodigal set out to his father's house from a sense of need; but his father saw him a great way off, and ran to meet him; so that the last steps he took towards his father's house were with the kiss still warm upon his cheek, and the welcome still musical in his ears.

"Law and terrors do but harden All the while they work alone; ...

Love is that quality in God which causes Him to lavish unbounded affection on others. His love is manifest in giving good and perfect gifts to the beloved.

We can give only a few of the myriad of verses that speak of that love! "I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee" (Jeremiah 31:3). "God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (

Stephen had been brought up on the mission field. He professed faith in Christ at an early age and had been the means of leading several to the Lord. When he first came back to the States to attend college, he maintained a good testimony. But then he began to drift. Coldness set in. He compromised with sin. Soon he began to dabble in Eastern religions.

When his parents came home on furlough, they were heartsick. They pled, reasoned, and entreated, but he was adamant. Finally they went...

God considered that this life of ours is very short, very fugitive, and that crowd it as he might with expressions of his kindness, he never would be able to give anything like a sufficient revelation of his love. So he resolved to take time beforehand, a great deal of it, and fill all heaven and earth, from the very beginning on continuously, with the manifestations of his love to the creature that was to live in this our day, was to hover for a little about the middle of this century, and...

The Lord's people are satisfied with his goodness, even in this life, in such a sense that they willingly forsake all and follow him. In the privation of all other things they are still so satisfied with the love of their divine Saviour, that they cast no regretful looks behind. Ah, but there are some, esteemed the people of God, who seem not to be satisfied with the simple goodness of their heavenly Father: there is too manifest a grasping after the riches and dignities of the earth. Would...