God Is Love: Making Sense of Suffering

“I know God is love.  I know he can only be good.  But everything about this situation feels unkind,” I admitted to a friend.

“All of this is true,” she responded.  “God is love.  He is always good, only good.  And this situation feels unkind.”

I was dealing with a debilitating medical issue that struck at what felt like the worst possible time.  As much as I wanted to trust God to sustain and equip me, it felt like he’d pulled the rug out from under my feet.

As I walked through the situation, the following words repeatedly came to mind: “Everything God permits in your life is his vessel to heal you.”

What if God wasn’t instantaneously healing my medical issue because he was using it to heal something else within me?

Day after day, I wrestled with this thought.  I reflected on the fact that three months earlier, I’d chosen a name of God to claim for the year: Jehovah Rapha, The Lord Who Heals.

What if my suffering was all part of a divine plan that didn’t make sense in the temporal realm but was being used to accomplish something important in the eternal realm?

God Is Love

First John 4:8 tells us that God is love.

Everything God does is done in love.  God cannot act outside of love because he embodies only love.  Nothing evil or hurtful lies within him.

How do we reconcile this when he doesn’t seem loving?

What do we do when the healing doesn’t come, the prodigal never returns, and the prayers appear to go unanswered?

How to Reconcile “God Is Love” in Suffering

Today, we’ll talk about how to cling to the truth that God is love when God doesn’t feel loving.

I also invite you to read to the end of today’s post for a free devotional eBook to help you experience God’s love in difficult times.

Now, let’s talk about how to reconcile the dissonance we feel when God doesn’t seem loving.

Stand on the Truth, Not Emotion

First, we remain anchored on the truth of God’s Word, not our feelings.

Our feelings will tell us that God is ignoring us or that he doesn’t care about us.  Our emotions will tell us he has abandoned us and turned away from us.

Meanwhile, God’s Word promises that he hears the prayers of his children.

He loves us so much that he sent his only Child to die in our place, receiving the punishment we deserve.

He will never abandon us or turn his back on us.

God Is Love: Making Sense of Suffering Share on X

Resist Offense

I’ve written on this topic many times because it has been a temptation and the source of pain in my life countless times.  When life is difficult, we face the temptation to take offense at God for permitting difficulties.

Sadly, our hearts grow hard when we hold onto offense.

We keep our hearts soft and moldable by clinging to God in trust instead of turning away from him in offense.

Ask to Help You Grow in Trust

When trusting God is difficult, when his ways don’t make sense to us, we can ask him to help us grow in trust.  This is a prayer he will answer.

Recognize God’s Desire to Heal

God wants his children to be healed and whole.

Sometimes, he heals us immediately and miraculously when we seek him for healing.  At other times, he asks us to wait.

When Lazarus was ill, Jesus did not rush to him immediately.  He waited.  Lazarus died.  None of this made sense by human standards.  However, Jesus waited because waiting would glorify God.

Jesus ultimately raised Lazarus from the dead, glorifying God through the miracle.

When healing doesn’t happen right away, we can trust that God has a purpose in the waiting.

Acknowledge the Need for Spiritual Healing

Until we reach heaven, we all need continual spiritual healing.

God wants to set us free from destructive habits and hang-ups.  He wants to align our hearts with his heart and change the way we see ourselves and others.

At times, God permits suffering so that he can heal the parts of our lives that need his healing touch.

As I waited for God to heal my body physically, he worked in my life to heal some patterns that were pulling me away from him.  He led me to a deeper level of releasing perfectionism and performance-based living.  He changed the way I perceived exercise and energy.  Even my eating habits came into greater alignment with him.

Suffering is never pleasant.  At the same time, God is love, and he can only be loving.

If you are suffering today, I encourage you to spend some time considering these truths.  Apply them to your situation.

God loves you with an unfailing love, and he wants to reveal himself to you.

Applications of the Truth “God Is Love”

If you want to become more attuned to God’s love, I invite you to spend some time responding to his pursuit.  Here are some practical suggestions.

1. Spend time in God’s Word.

When you don’t feel God’s love, open your Bible and search for Scripture about God’s love for you.  Write these verses in your journal.  Post them in your home.  Speak them out loud.  Memorize them.  God’s Word renews our minds.

This is the most practical way to feel God’s love.

2. Spend time in silence and solitude.

We also experience God’s love by spending time in silence and solitude with him.

During this time, we talk to him in prayer.  We read his Word and worship him in song.  This is a time for resting in his presence and reminding ourselves that he loves us, even when we do not feel his love.

I invite you to join me here for 11 ways to connect with God.

3. Ask God to help you become more aware of his presence and his love.

God pursues you with goodness and mercy.  God is literally chasing you down with loving gifts in his hands.  Ask him to help you become more aware of his pursuit.  This is a prayer he will answer.

4. Quiet yourself and listen for the still small voice of Truth within you.

God most often speaks to us through the words of the Bible.  But he can also speak through gentle impressions from the Holy Spirit.

These are warm, life-giving thoughts that align with his Word.  More often than not, when we ask God to speak to us, the impression will be the same, “I love you.”

We’re not making this up.  This is God’s gentle voice.

5. Cling to the promise that nothing can take God’s love away from you.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? (Romans 8:35).

God’s love for us is unconditional.  It can never be taken away from us.

Cling to this truth when you don’t feel God’s love.

6. Look to the cross.