It’s so easy to overlook truth, jump to conclusions, and to quickly forget how much God loves you. This happens when we incorrectly measure God’s love. I was only able to be reminded of this conclusion after reading a passage in chapter 9 of the Gospel of John. This story is about a man who was blind from birth. Jesus’ disciples ask if the man was born blind because of sin. Jesus surprisingly responds to their question by saying, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.” Jesus points out that bad things don’t happen because of punishment or anger by the Father. Instead, they happen so that God can show His faithfulness in our lives. His love is not shown by our lack of suffering, but in the fact that He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die for us, even though we are completely undeserving, in order to pay the price for our sins and reconcile us to Himself. This is the way that we measure God’s love: by Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf.
God did not send His Son to earth so that we could live a life free from suffering, but that His greatness could be shown, even in our distress. Commenting on the story that I mentioned above, a man named John Kostenberger says, “Rather than wasting time by trying to figure out the root cause of suffering in a given instance, the important thing is to remain humble and repentant and, like Jesus, to see instances of suffering around us as opportunity for the work of God to be displayed in people’s (or our) lives.” Also, I would add, suffering is a reminder to remind ourselves how great God’s love is for us.
The Bible says, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). My hope is that these words can encourage you in some way. Life is hard and it is so easy to be discouraged during difficult times. I am so thankful that we can be assured of God’s great love for us this Easter season. That is what Easter is all about: God loves you, Christ died for you, and He desires you to be in a relationship with Him.
If you don’t personally know Christ and that kind of love sounds like something you desire for your life, I would love to talk to you more about what that could look like in your life (just click one of those social icons below).