I recently read a book entitled Beautiful Battlefields. I had agreed to read it for Home Educating Family Reviews, but I was not incredibly excited about it. After all, who really wants to read a book about suffering? Once I finally picked it up, though, I was hooked. One powerful observation after another struck me, but one particular thought stood out above the rest.
What symbolizes God’s love for you?
When we see prayers answered miraculously, we feel the love of God. It is a tangible glimpse of the way He uses His power to lavish love upon us. But what happens when He doesn’t miraculously intervene? In Beautiful Battlefields, author Bo Stern shares her family’s running battle against her husband’s ALS. He has not received healing, though I guarantee they have asked for it in prayer. Does that mean God does not love them?
Hardly!
This reality struck me powerfully. All too frequently, I allow myself to equate God’s love with my interpretation of answered prayer. I convince myself that I need tangible evidence. It is easy to say God loves me when a provision arrives at just the right time or a child I’ve been praying for sees victory over her cancer.
It was hard to see tangible evidence of his love when cancer took both my cousin and my aunt, among others I have known in my lifetime.
It was hard to see the evidence when our house in Mississippi would not sell. When it finally did sell, it was hard to see the love of God in the way that it happened. We are still bearing the consequences of the way the situation was mishandled by people we thought we could trust.
It was hard to see evidence of God’s love when every door we tried to walk through seemed to be closed, blocking out goals, dreams, hopes, and desires.
It has been hard to see powerful evidence when one marriage after another has crumbled around me, even after intense prayer and pleading for strengthening, reconciliation, healing, and restoration.
Hard to see, but not impossible. The true depth of His incredible, exceeding, astounding, abundant love is not revealed through healing and provision. True, those things are icing on the cake when He hands them to us, but they are not the rich cake itself. No, the true depth of His love can never be shaken from us, no matter how the circumstances line up against us. The truth of His love is seen in our salvation. It is seen in the way He holds, comforts, strengthens, and grows us even when the healing does not come. The truth of His love is in the fact that He mourns with us. The truth of His love is in the fact that He can glorify Himself in ways we cannot imagine, yet He chooses to do it through us!
The thing about these proofs is that they are not circumstantial. They do not ebb and flow with our emotions. They do not fade as time distances us from the exhilaration of a miraculous event. Instead, these proofs are constant. They remain with us continually, whether we are walking in victory or immersed in the heat of battle. And we can be confident that they will remain into eternity.
God loves us!!
Oh, my precious friend, can I speak that to you right now? Wherever you are, whatever your circumstances, please do not miss His love simply because you cannot see His miracles. God loves you! I pray today that such a powerful truth embraces you as never before. I pray you will know it beyond a shadow of a doubt.
God loves you!!!
Not Quite Ordinary 