When You Feel Unloved or Unlovable: Jeremiah 31:3
Love your Legacy Devotional ~ By Tay
Opening Prayer
Jesus, I keep checking the expiry date on love.
Every kindness feels temporary. Every good season feels like it is counting down. I am braced for love to run out, because that is what it has always done.
Show me a love with no expiry date.
Amen.
Scripture Reading
Jeremiah 31:3
“The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying: ‘I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.’”
Devotional Reflection
Open your wallet. Look at the cards inside.
The loyalty card with the points that expire. The coupon with the fine print. The gift card with the date stamped on the back. So much of what the world calls love comes with terms and conditions: love that lasts as long as you are useful, as long as you are pleasant, as long as you do not need too much. We learn early to check the expiry date on everything, including affection.
God’s love has no card. It has no fine print. It has no date stamped on the back. Think of the difference between a coupon and a covenant. One expires in thirty days. The other endures for eternity.
“I have loved you with an everlasting love.”
Everlasting means no beginning, no ending, no condition. It means His love did not start when you got your act together, so it cannot stop when your act falls apart. It means the love was already there before your first breath and will still be there after your last one. It is not a response to you. It is a decision about you, made before you existed, that nothing you do can unmake.
“I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.” Drawn, like drawing water from a deep well, like drawing someone close with a gentle hand on their back. And unfailing, not sometimes-kind, not kind-when-you-deserve-it. Unfailing kindness does not have off days. It does not run out at the end of the month. It does not get tired of you.
Jeremiah spoke these words to people who felt entirely unlovable. Israel had wandered, rebelled, broken every promise. If anyone had earned an expired love, it was them. And God says: everlasting. Unfailing. Still drawing you close.
So you can stop checking the date. This love does not expire. It does not sour. It does not get used up by your need. The only thing everlasting in your life is the one thing you keep doubting, and it is the one thing you can stop doubting today.
Journaling Reflection
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Where did you learn to check the expiry date on love? Whose love ran out on you?
You might start with something like: my father’s love felt conditional on my achievements, so I still perform for everyone.
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What would it feel like to stop bracing for God’s love to run out?
It might be something small and honest, like: I would stop apologizing for needing Him so much.
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What is one way you can let yourself be “drawn” by His unfailing kindness today, instead of earning your way toward it?
You could gently say: I will sit with this verse for ten minutes and let it be true, without doing anything to deserve it.
Closing Prayer
Jesus, thank You for love with no expiry date.
Thank You that it did not start with my goodness and cannot end with my failure. Draw me close with Your unfailing kindness today. I am done checking the date. I am Yours, everlastingly.
Amen.
Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
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