Drawn by God's Loving Kindness

"I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee." —Jeremiah 31:3 [KJV]

Thus the Lord speaks to His church as to a collected body; therefore ye members of Jesus, what foundation of comfort, what cause of rejoicing have you daily! But what doubts and scruples do often arise in your poor hearts concerning God's love to you! Why is this? Because we judge of and determine the bounds of the love of our God, from the sense and feeling we find in ourselves, instead of abiding by the Lord's own gracious declarations in His word to us. 

How absurd would it be for us to judge of the dimensions of that glorious luminary the sun, by the little light and heat which we partake of! Shall we conclude from the severe cold we feel in winter's frost; or, in the sense of midnight darkness, that light and heat cease to exist in the sun? Alas! we may as well "measure the waters in the hollow of our hand, mete out the heaven with our span, weigh the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance," as truly as to estimate and judge of the infinite, boundless love of God to poor sinners in Christ Jesus, from our perception and sense of it. 

Dost though O soul, experience the drawing of thy heart to Jesus for righteousness, atonement, life, and salvation? This is not of the will of the flesh, but of the power of God, the effects of His loving kindness to thee. For, saith Jesus, "no man can come unto Me, except the Father draw him."—John 6:44. As the rays of light lead to the source from whence they flow, so this stream of love, in time, instructs our souls in the most comfortable truth of God's everlasting love. Think not, because I experience repentance towards God, faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, am obedient to the gospel of holiness, therefore, for these graces, now the Lord begins to love me. 

O no! for His love is of an earlier date; this is reversing God's method; and in times of darkness and desertion, and under Satan's buffetings, when thou hast no light to see thy graces, nor feeling sense of comfort in the exercise of them, this method of judging of God's love will be most distressing to thy poor soul. O, may the Spirit of truth help us to judge of God's love according to His own word of grace. 

"I have loved thee with an everlasting love; and therefore (for this cause) with loving kindness have I drawn thee" from darkness to light, from the kingdom of Satan into the kingdom of My dear Son; glory shall crown what grace begun. What motive so powerful, what doctrine so influential to animate and enliven the soul with fervent love and cheerful obedience as the daily reflection and constant belief of the everlasting, unchangeable love of God to us in Christ Jesus? "Not any thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."—Romans 8:39.

-preacher William Mason (1724-1797 A.D.)

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