Choose God’s Love

So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
1 John 4:16
One of the definitive messages of the Bible is that “God is love” (1 John 4:8, 16). I’ve been a pastor long enough to know that when I say that, some people pull back and look at me sideways, “Really? God is love? Well, if that’s true, then how could He have allowed . . .” - and out comes a painful story.

Something happened to you. Something was done to you. Someone broke your heart. Something devastated you, and you cannot reconcile that pain with the message that God loves.

I'm so sorry for your hurt - I really am. But you need to know that the way out of that box is not to deny or run from God’s heart, but instead to embrace it as it really is. Too often we self-define God’s love: “This is my concept of love, and God must conform to this view or I can’t accept Him as love.” Many have made this mistake, though they didn’t mean to.

How does God represent Himself as love? I believe it isn’t always what we think.

For example, most people would agree that when you love someone, you protect them, right? God’s love is a protecting love, but it’s not always a preventing love. God doesn’t always keep hard things from happening. Here’s why: He has a higher purpose for our pain. He allows it to humble us, so we see how much we need Him.

Would you have found God if He hadn’t allowed some pain to come into your life? If you would have never turned to Him without that heartache, isn’t it true that in some sense that was a very loving thing for God to allow? Wasn’t it that hurt that brought you to your knees before Him, asking for His help?

Here’s the single best way that I think can describe God’s love in your life: He loves you with a perfecting love. You are under construction, my friend. God is working on you. There will be difficult times, but you can trust Him. No pain is allowed into your life but that He chooses to use for your good. Your loving, protecting Father measures out the trial and carefully watches over you every moment. His eyes are upon you. You are never far from His thoughts. He counts the hairs on your head. He saves your tears in a bottle. He loves you with an everlasting love. But let His love be what it really - a perfecting love.