God’s Love

I would like you to answer this question before reading further: How do you see God’s love and care for you?

Did you take a few moments to think about your answer or did you begin to reply immediately? If the latter, what was your answer?

When I first read that question, my initial response was the obvious one – I see His love in the family he has blessed me with, the home in which I live, and my health. And then I stopped. Throughout most of my college career, I always figured out the answer the teacher wanted and that was the answer I delivered. This time however, I didn’t want to give the right answer, I wanted to answer with the truth.

The question above was part of a homework assignment for a class I am taking at my church titled, “Rooted.” I am working on deepening my relationship with Christ and this is one of the classes along my journey. Rooted was developed together with Pastor Muriithi of Kenya based on a 10-week journey designed to discover God’s purpose for those in their church family and in the world.¹ The premise is that when one fully understands God’s plan for his or her life, they cannot help but carry it out.

I want a deeper relationship with my God. I want to understand His will for my life, so I decided to go all in. I thought about the men, women, and children I read about in the Voice of the Martyr (VOM) magazine² I get each month. Christians who are persecuted constantly. They are kidnapped, beaten, thrown in prison, and even killed for their Christian beliefs. These are people who often live in one or two room huts with dirt floors. People who walk miles to hear God’s word and spend time with other believers. People who are shunned by family members and often disowned and thrown out of their homes.

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the
kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and
utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for
your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
Matthew 5:10-12

Yet these people love God and know he loves them. How? In the face of all they endure as Christians, how do they come to believe God loves and cares for them? The bible tells us the story of Job. He lost everything and yet he praised God. How? Many who call themselves Christians here in American would turn their backs on God and walk away from him if they lost everything. They wouldn’t see His love; they would blame him. If you really loved me…

Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”
Job 1:20-21

This week, please take time to ponder this question and answer it for yourself. I will be doing the same. If you suddenly lost everything, would you still believe God loves you?

Just for today, read a few chapters from the book of Job or go here to read stories of those persecuted for their faith and then thank God for His most important gift of all – His love.

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Blessings,

– psg –