The Love of God
One of my most favorite hymns is “The Love of God,” by Frederick W. Faber. My favorite verse is the final verse (and chorus), which says
“Could we with ink the ocean fill and were the skies of parchment made,
were every stalk on earth a quill, and every man a scribe by trade,
to write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry.
Nor could the scroll contain the whole, though stretched from sky to sky.
Oh love of God, how rich and pure, how measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure, the saints’ and angels’ song.”
When I was going through a period in my life where it seemed like God was taking away a lot of things I loved, and I was hurting a lot, a sentence popped into my head: “God loves me more than I love anything.”
God loves me more than I love my favorite place in the world, or my friends, or my “dream school,” or my plans… or anything.
Here’s my basic train of thought:
1.) God loves us. (John 3:16)
2.) Because of this, considering we believe that He did indeed send His Son to die for us because He loves us, we love God. (1 John 4:19)
3.) We know that in all things, God is working for the good of those who love Him… us! (Romans 8:28)
So when He alters a plan that I had thought was good- a plan that I loved- He knows what He’s doing, and I can be assured that it is for my good and His glory.
This promise isn’t always immediately comforting. We still hurt. We still doubt. We still try to pick up the pieces. We still don’t understand. But it’s right after Paul tells us that God is working for our good that he launches into what I like to think of as a pep talk.
“If God is for us, who can be against us?!” he cheers as we stand, downcast, looking at the shreds of what we thought was a good plan.
“He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all- how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things?” All things, Paul? All things? Because I loved this thing, and He took it away. But then, there are some things that you simply cannot “graciously” give when you are an all-knowing perfect being.
Something that looks good to us might also be something that God took a look at and knew that it wasn’t part of the master plan or part of the gift, so in His perfection, knowledge, and love, He withheld it.
And then Paul jumps into the heart of it:
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?” But, Paul, sometimes it feels like this really isn’t for my good, because it hurts and I’m not quite sure where God’s love is fitting into this, so mayb-
“NO!” But, I-
“In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.”
This sentence could be emphasized in so many ways. In all of these things- in every hurt, in every joy, in everything we live through and overcome, we aren’t just participants. We aren’t just warriors. We aren’t just conquerors. We are more than conquerors. Before we let this go to our heads, we’re reminded that this is so because of Jesus loving us.
At this point, I imagine I’d still be standing there trying to figure out how something as small as me could manage to be more than a conqueror in everything. “Through Him who loved us!” Paul says.
“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
~
God’s not going anywhere. He knows what He’s doing, and we know that He loves us.
