Sometimes, we need someone else to love us so we can learn to love ourselves. 

 As a child, I struggled to understand what God’s love for His people looked like. I could feel the warm embrace of my mother’s arms in a hug. I could see the steadfast commitment between my grandma and grandpa. I could smell the aromas at every Christmas gathering or family outing. However, when it came to seeing, tasting, touching, and experiencing the love of Christ, I was distressed.

How could I know someone I’d never seen? How could I feel His warm embrace? How could I sense His presence near when I struggled to see Him with my eyes?

Can you relate?

In Jeremiah 31:3, we read that God’s love for His people is eternal, unchanging, and unfailing: I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with an unfailing kindness. The beauty of this verse is not only that God’s love cannot be taken from us but also that it never changes.

As much as I could see, feel, taste, touch, and experience love from those around me, Jesus taught me that His love surpasses them all. There were times when my parents’ love fell short, my grandparents quarreled, and many family gatherings included arguments I’d rather not rehash. We are human, after all… but God? He’s perfect, steadfast, and unchanging.

Numbers 23:19 states it this way: God is not human, that He should lie, not a human being, that He should change His mind. Does He speak and then not act? Does He promise and not fulfill?

Of course, the answer to these questions is rhetorical. If God speaks, He will act. If God promises, He will fulfill. Likewise, if we believe He loves us, we know His love never changes. Time, circumstances, or our feelings do not bind it, but God’s love transcends our understanding in what I call whispers of love.

The Nature of God’s Love 

God’s everlasting love is unconditional, faithful, and personal. God loved us so much that He sent His one and only Son to die on the cross for our sins (John 3:16-17). From the beginning, God’s desire and design were to reconcile us to Him. Why? So we could understand the extent of His sacrifice, mercy, and love.

In our busy, chaotic world, God often waits for us to receive and press into the full measure of His love—to stop and listen. We might not hear an audible voice but rather gentle whispers of stillness, silence, and pause.

God’s love draws us nearer to Him and radiates from His presence within us. His love restores our relationship with Him (2 Corinthians 5:18-19), with others (Matthew 5:24), and even with ourselves, because it calls us to live out His love.

May Psalm 46:10 be our prayer: Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.

PRAYER

Dear God, thank You for loving us with an everlasting love. We are grateful that You have given us this love so we can share it with those around us. Please help us carve out time for You so we can rest in the still, sacred moments of Your love. We praise, thank, and love You, Lord. Amen.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION

1. How have you experienced God’s love (even during difficult times)?
2. How does God’s love teach us to love ourselves and others?
3. How can you carve out time in your schedule to hear whispers of love?
4. Who will you intercede for in prayer—with whispers of love?