“The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee” (Jeremiah 31:3).

A favorite love song of another generation was Irving Berlin’s, “Always,” in which the singer would promise unending love to his beloved. But the only one who has really loved with an everlasting love is God, for He loved us in Christ, before the world began. Our text in its setting applies especially to Israel, but it could equally well be appropriated by each individual believer.

Now if God has always loved us, and will always continue to love us, there are also many things we should always do in return. We should do as David did when he said: “I have set the LORD always before me” (Psalm 16:8). He should continually be the direction and goal of all we do.

We should always obey His word. “Therefore thou shalt love the LORD thy God, and keep His charge, and His statutes and His judgments, and His commandments, alway” 11:1). This involves more than simply obeying the letter of the law. As Paul said, “I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offense toward God, and toward men” (Acts 24:16).

There is always need for prayer, “praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints” (Ephesians 6:18).

Finally, we are commanded to “rejoice in the Lord alway, and again I say, Rejoice” (Philippians 4:4). Even in time of trouble, we can be “as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing”(II Corinthians 6:10), and “always abounding in the work of the Lord” (I Corinthians 15:58). He promised: “I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world” (Matthew 28:20). HMM