GOD IS LOVE

Yesterday, as I listened to the radio, the host asked for people to call in and tell of a time when they felt God had really shown his love for them. Many people called in with stories of being saved from a disaster or heartache. Some told stories of encouragement from the station or from friends. But I didn't like this...the stories were inspiring, yes, but the reasoning was all wrong. Are we to think that God shows his love for us only when things go the way we want them to go? Does His love not show when bad things happen?

People! God loves ALL THE TIME! Not just when things happen the way we plan. He shows love for us when we find out we don't have cancer. And He show just as much love to the person who is diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer. As I stated in my last entry, God loves us desperately ALL THE TIME. We shouldn't feel his especial love only when good things happen. We should feel his love when our loved 0nes die and when they are saved from death. We should feel his love when our kids are rebelling and when they are pursuing him wholeheartedly. Jesus was here. He knows we hurt. He hurt too --he was betrayed by close friends, mocked by authorities, and nailed to a cross unjustly. Yet, God never stopped powerfully loving him during any of those trials.

God shows his love for us ALL THE TIME. Our feelings may lie to us and tell us that God loves us more when good things happen. But he doesn't. He works all things together for good--even the bad ones. God shows his love for us everyday in everything. He is love; to be anything else would be against his character--and God cannot lie. We need to change our thinking regarding when God blesses us. We don't always know what is best for us. Let me change that: We don't often know what is best for us. God does. And he always loves. His decisions are always the best for us--even if they seem wrong to us.

As I was having this debate about God's love in my head on my way to Panera, a man called in to say that this last year had been really tough; he had lost his job, his wife and his home. "Where is God in that?", he said. Where is God in that? He is right in the front and center of that. He is in full control in that. He is showing his love IN THAT. God is there. Trust him. He knows what he is doing--keep holding on to Him. HE LOVES YOU.

"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

Romans 5:8