Speaker: Dr. Harold J. Sala | Series: Guidelines For Living

The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness.” Jeremiah 31:3

 

Have you ever doubted God’s love?  Have you ever faced circumstances that caused you to say, “How could God love me when He has allowed circumstances as these?”  It may have been the death of your child, or a mate who deeply disappointed you, or something about which you prayed, and your prayer went unanswered—or so you thought.  Possibly you did not verbalize it at all, but way down in your heart you just allowed those thoughts of, “How could this happen if God really loved me?” to reverberate in your soul.

This question of God’s goodness is one that eventually confronts almost everyone.  Shortly before his untimely death in an automobile accident, then the director of Inter‑Varsity Christian Fellowship, Paul Little, wrote that the bottom line of our theology is whether or not God is good. If you are convinced that He is good, then it is not hard to accept the fact that He loves you as a person. If you have questions that are on the back burner of your mind, you are the loser in many ways.

First, you are not certain as to what your relationship with Him really is, and then, secondly, your lack of peace regarding the matter keeps you from being a channel of His love to others. Those nagging questions effectively bottle up the flow of God’s love through your life. Then those thoughts about God’s lack of justice or goodness keep your heart torn up, and peace escapes you.

The solution begins by learning something the Bible says about the goodness of God and His personal love for you as an individual.  Try to base your understanding of God on His Word rather than on circumstances, your feelings and emotions, or the state of your digestion.  In both the Old and New Testaments, the fact of God’s love for you as a person is simply stated‑‑like the following:  Ephesians 3:19 speaks of love which surpasses knowledge; Jeremiah 31:3 says God’s love is everlasting; Psalm 103:17 says His love is steadfast, “from everlasting to everlasting upon those who fear Him.” Then John 3:16 says God’s love was so great it compelled Him to send His Son. Jeremiah wrote that God’s love is unceasing (Jeremiah 3:22).

Paul, the apostle, wrote that nothing can separate us from the love of God, neither circumstances nor emotions, not even spiritual darkness; however, your attitude can be a dark cloud that effectively keeps His love from penetrating your heart.  Suffice it to say that the Bible consistently says that God loves you no matter how you feel about it. To be perfectly frank with you, I do not understand why He should love me but I have resolved the issue that He does, and it was an understanding of the cross which helped me to understand He really does love me.  It was on the cross where Christ gave His life that I came to understand love means commitment, and here is the highest measure of commitment.

There is good news! God does love you as a person with a love that is unconditional‑‑not based on your response‑‑and unending.

On the banks of the Firth of Clyde in Scotland is a little stone church where a young pastor once began to lose his sight.  Rejected by the young woman he loved and wanted to marry, he wrote these words; “O love that wilt not let me go; I rest my weary soul in Thee; I give Thee back the life I owe; that in Thine ocean depths its flow; May richer, fuller be.”  George Matheson discovered that God’s love is unending and so can you.

Resource reading: Jeremiah 31