Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“I have loved you with an everlasting love;
therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.”
NL Daily Devotion for Monday, July 7, 2025
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
Everlasting. As finite human beings, we don’t usually think in terms of eternity. We can’t comprehend it. Within our 80-ish years, we narrow things down to very short periods. We compartmentalize. It can be difficult to have perspective in the midst of challenges. I’m sure that God’s people, conquered and scattered, had a hard time believing God loved them. What good was it to them that God’s love was “everlasting” if they couldn’t see it in the moment?
And how often do we feel the same way? We’ve all dealt with lousy things in our lives, and it makes little sense to compare our pain to someone else’s pain and decide whose is valid and whose isn’t. Pain is pain, and in the midst of it, we can be like, “Um. Hello? Oh God? Where are you?” Then to be told that God loves us with an “everlasting” love sort of feels insulting. We don’t care how long it lasts. We don’t care about the big picture. We want relief now.
And yet, we would do well to step back and try to get perspective. Again, not to compare our pain to others and tell ourselves we have no right to be upset. But instead to recognize that we are not alone. And to recognize that God’s love is far too big for us to ever fully comprehend. And therein lies the beauty—even though we can’t comprehend it, still God lavishes it on us in the here and now. Even if we can’t see it or feel it or understand it, we can know on some level that God is right there with us in the midst of our suffering. That it is not God’s desire that we suffer. That God suffers with us—feels everything we feel—out of that deep, everlasting love.
I know. Small comfort when things are really, really awful. But it’s all I got.
How can I believe in God’s everlasting love when I’m in pain right now?
