“The mountains and the hills may crumble, but My love for you will never end…so says the LORD who loves you” (Isaiah 54:10 GNT)
God is love. Love is who He is and it’s the bedrock of all that He does. Such love is too deep, too intense, and too pure to be measured by emotion and intellect alone. It must be measured by the third dimension of faith, for there will be times in our lives when it doesn’t appear as if God is loving. At times like that, we need to remember that God’s love is steadfast and holy.
For love to be pure, it must become angry at that which hurts the beloved. If that hurtful thing is deeply buried within the beloved it has to be extricated in a painful way.
Just as a good surgeon must be ruthless to remove cancer cells, so God’s holy love demands that we get rid of sin in our lives. When we fail to do so, His love compels Him to send trials into our lives that will lead us to repentance. But God is not indifferent to our pain. He suffers along with us. “As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust” (Psalm 103: 13,14).
Trials are sent to grow our relationship with God. It’s in the hard places that we experience the depth of God’s love. It’s then we learn of God’s compassionate nature and His faithfulness. We get to know Him as “the Lord (who) binds up the bruises of his people and heals the wounds he inflicted” (Isaiah 30:26). “Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love. For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to the children of men” (Lamentations 3:32,33).
Real love seeks the well-being of the loved one. It warns to prevent more harm. It disciplines to create more growth. It sometimes withholds what we think is good to give something better.
What comfort it is to know that no matter how life treats us, God’s love never changes! He loves us the same on good days as on bad days. With Him there is no variableness, no shadow of turning His back on us (James 1:17). It is we who stand in our own shadow of limited understanding or refusal to act upon that which we know. Being a loving heavenly Father, God gives us what we need not only to survive but to triumph
Thank you, Father, that your love for me never ends. I want to live in such a way that I bring joy to your heart.
Used by Permission
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