“The love of the Lord.” — Hosea 3:1
Believer, look back through all thine experience, and think of the way
whereby the Lord thy God has led thee in the wilderness, and how He
hath fed and clothed thee every day — how He hath borne with thine ill
manners — how He hath put up with all thy murmurings, and all thy
longings after the flesh-pots of Egypt — how He has opened the rock to
supply thee, and fed thee with manna that came down from heaven. Think
of how His grace has been sufficient for thee in all thy troubles — how His
blood has been a pardon to thee in all thy sins — how His rod and His
staff have comforted thee. When thou hast thus looked back upon the love
of the Lord, then let faith survey His love in the future, for remember that
Christ’s covenant and blood have something more in them than the past.
He who has loved thee and pardoned thee, shall never cease to love and
pardon. He is Alpha, and He shall be Omega also: He is first, and He shall
be last. Therefore, bethink thee, when thou shalt pass through the valley of
the shadow of death, thou needest fear no evil, for He is with thee. When
thou shalt stand in the cold floods of Jordan, thou needest not fear, for
death cannot separate thee from His love; and when thou shalt come into
the mysteries of eternity thou needest not tremble, “For I am persuaded,
that neither death; nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor
things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other
creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in
Christ Jesus our Lord.” Now, soul, is not thy love refreshed? Does not
this make thee love Jesus? Doth not a flight through illimitable plains of
the ether of love inflame thy heart and compel thee to delight thyself in the
Lord thy God? Surely as we meditate on “the love of the Lord,” our hearts
burn within us, and we long to love Him more.
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