In Christ, I am Loved

In a few days, I will be undergoing my 28th surgery. It will be the 22nd that my nine-year-old daughter has experienced alongside me.

We have a tradition in our home. Each night, I ask my daughter, “What’s on your mind and heart?” A few nights ago, she crawled into bed for our daily pre-sleep snuggles and “heart-to-heart” chat. She was extra clingy, and before I could ask why, her eyes started to leak. “I don’t want you to go to surgery again. If Jesus loved me, He wouldn’t make you go!”

Oh, how I understood the fear and anger that triggered her words. I’ve voiced them myself directly to the throne of the Father more times than I can recall.

Lovie and I are in good company with our heart-wrenching questions. King David yelled at the throne, “Long enough, God—you’ve ignored me long enough.”[1] I picture the prophet Habakkuk on his knees in sackcloth and covered in ashes, asking, “God, how long do I have to cry out for help before you listen? … Why do you force me to look at evil, stare trouble in the face day after day?”[2] Job takes it a step further by asking, "Why didn’t I die at birth, my first breath out of the womb my last?" The Prophet Jeremiah mourns, "I’ll never forget the trouble, the utter lostness, the taste of ashes, the poison I’ve swallowed. I remember it all—oh, how well I remember—the feeling of hitting the bottom."[3]

My daughter has also experienced more than fifteen hospital admissions that did not include surgeries. Many of these kept us apart for weeks at a time. This little girl has held my hand, walked through deep water, and rung the bells of hospital discharge with me!

But each event is a stab in this Mama’s heart, as the questioning statement surfaces: “If God loved me, Mama, He wouldn’t allow you to keep getting sick and leaving me. Right?”

It’s really an age-old question: Why do bad things happen to good people? Where is the fairness scale?

Many theologians have filled pages attempting to reconcile the tension between a good God and a hard life. But ultimately, those theological explanations rarely dry the tears. They don’t comfort the loss. They don’t satisfy the ache. And they never fix the hard.

Author and speaker Lysa TerKeurst says, “Our feelings are not the barometer of truth. God’s Word is.” Theologian and pastor Tim Keller echoes, “Emotions are good servants but bad masters. When we let our feelings lead, we can be led astray from the truth.”

Faith is not an emotion. Faith is a premeditated decision to rest in Christ’s truth even when life crumbles.

By faith, I choose to believe that God cannot lie. “God is not human, that He should lie, not a human being, that He should change His mind.”[4] It is not within His character to mislead. “In the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time.”[5]

I place as my foundation that God cannot lie, then add an aspect of His unchanging character: His goodness. It is a calculated decision to believe that God is good— even in the face of what feels like irrefutable proof of the opposite.

When God’s goodness becomes nonnegotiable, I begin to move my emotions out of the driver’s seat and allow God’s truth to steer my life. Pastor and author Tony Evans wisely advises, “Let the truth of God’s Word inform your feelings, not the other way around.”

You’ve heard the phrase, “God is good all the time. All the time, God is good.” While completely known as Christianese, it does indeed pass the truth test. His goodness does not ebb and flow with my changing circumstances. He is good when my life shatters. He is good when my life soars. Religious platitudes wash away by taking each emotion captive and pouring it through the sieve of God’s truthful Word. Then, and only then, does solid foundational truth remain.

I love how The Message translates 2 Corinthians 10:5: “We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ.”

“Truth does not change with our emotions. What we feel does not determine what is real. God’s truth remains steadfast.”[6]

If we demand of ourselves that our emotions follow truth, we now believe that God cannot lie and that He is good. But deep within us lies the question, “Does this good God really love and care about little ol’ me?”

And here, my dear readers, is where the absolute mind-blowing truth awaits us.

In Christ, I am loved.

The mighty creator, God of the universe, loves you intimately and longs to know every part of your being. Jeremiah declares, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.”[7] Oh, my dears, let the magnitude of those words wash over your aching soul. You are loved! Not with a love that fails, but with an everlasting love—a love of such depth that you cannot fathom.

I can’t even begin to explain the infinite mind and heart of my God through my finite worldview. But when I take Him at His Word, the truth rings out in my heart that God loves me. Over three hundred times, the love of God is mentioned in Scripture. That’s a lot of declarations of unending, undying, undeserved love.

In Christ, I am loved.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”[8]

“So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love…”[9]

“He will take great delight in you; in His love, He will no longer rebuke you but will rejoice over you with singing.”[10]

All stop! Hit the brakes! Who will do what in you? Almighty Yahweh God takes abundant delight in you? The dreams that you don’t dare whisper out loud. The fears that keep you awake at night. The dolightful emotions that fill your mind. The Father, through the Son, and in the power of the Holy Spirit, experiences and communicates His delight in all that makes you… uniquely you.

At creation, God proclaimed that male and female were created in His image, and “God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good!”[11] Some four thousand years later, when Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, God spoke from heaven saying, "This is my Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased."  As a co-heir with Jesus Christ, we are assured of God’s love and pleasure in us, as well.

Further in the New Testament story, we are invited to “Cast all your anxiety on Him.” Why? Why should I trust the busy God of all the world with my problems? Why should I pour out my soul? “…because He cares for you.”

Oh, my dears, I know life is hard. Pain is great. Ache is deep. Empathy is lacking. You’re worn down from every side. You struggle to show up to your life each day.

But what rest comes when we truly believe, through faith, that we are loved and wanted by our Creator. It’s a genuine peace in the middle of confusion. The answers no longer seem so important when I’m resting in the arms of the Father.

Too often, I find myself limiting God’s love to salvation alone. I acknowledge that He was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, died on Calvary for my wrongdoing, came back to physical life, and then ascended to the right hand of the Father to reign. But that was just the beginning. That sacrificial showing of His love approximately 1,994 years ago was the most extraordinary declaration of “I love you!” that humanity has ever known. But amazingly, our God continues to declare His love for us in monumental moments and quiet whispers.

“I love you, my child.”

Seek out the depth of Jesus Christ's love for you. Ask Him to show His love to you in new and more profound ways. 

Rest in the tension of the journey as we grapple with questions that seemingly oppose God’s goodness and love. And no matter the struggle, anchor your mind to these truths:

God cannot lie.

God is always good.

God loves you.

[1] Psalm 13:1-2 (MSG)

[2] Habakkuk 1:2-3 (MSG)

[3] Job 3:11 (MSG)

[4] Numbers 23:19

[5] Titus 1:3

[6] Author Unknown

[7] Jeremiah 31:3

[8] John 3:16

[9] 1 John 4:16

[10] Zephaniah 3:17

[11] Genesis 1:31