The Lord appeared to him from afar, saying, I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore I have drawn you with loving kindness. Jeremiah 31:3 NASB
There is a saying that you can catch more flies with honey than you can with vinegar. Yet when I was growing up, most of the things that I heard about God were seasoned with vinegar. Sort of like: God does love you, but He will kill you if do not do what I said. Over the years, I have learned that God is not like that at all and that people will create a god for you, then want you to bow down to it much like Nebuchadnezzar (Dan 3:1).
It took years for me to put aside that baggage, and I still struggle against it even now. For some reason it is easy for us to believe that God is mean, or hates us, but hard to believe that He truly loves us. But this is what scripture teaches throughout. The first time that I read the Bible through, I was most amazed by what was not in there. So we have a choice: believe what we have been told is in the Bible, or believe what is actually in the Bible.
What is in there is this: God loves us with an everlasting love, and that love never changes based on your behavior. He does not love you more when you think you are good, or less when you think you are bad. He draws us with His loving kindness. When you fall, get up, He still loves you. The Lord is fresh out of vinegar. You will only find honey on His shelves.
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