Trusting God’s Love
I love this passage from 1 John:
So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. (1 John 4:16a ESV)
Since I often think of the term “believe” as a mental exercise, I like to replace it with the word “trust”:
So we have come to know and to trust the love that God has for us. (1 John 4:16a)
Do I trust God’s love? Do you trust God’s love? How would our lives look different if we trusted God’s love?
Just in the middle of re-reading Yancey’s “What’s So Amazing About Grace” – and then read this post. What immediately comes to mind is that if we really trust God’s love, we’ll find it so much easier to really forgive people and go on to be gracious to them. And to turn over all our pain and bitterness and our longing for retribution/ revenge to Father. Because if we really trust His love, we will know that whatever He decides to do about the situation will work out to be the very best for all concerned (and sometimes that “all” ripples out to include multitudes of people). Hmmm… reminds me of The Shack story, too!
Just a couple verses after this John says that perfect love casts out fear, Stephanie and I have been talking a lot about that lately. It seems to me, correct me if I’m wrong, the more we trust God’s love for us, the less fear and doubt we will have.
I would stop stressing so much that I’m thinking “right”… or making “right” decisions… or worrying about being on the ‘right’ path…..
I would walk in more freedom knowing that He isn’t ‘angry’ when I’m ‘wrong’…. but like a loving parent – not as much concerned about external things (including knowledge that can be easily changed through reading/associations)… but more concerned with our heart, faith, love, transformation inside.
So I think I’d stress less about being ‘right’… and would trust more to make decisions knowing that He can make my decisions right.
Good comments everyone! Thank you!
-Alan
I think trusting God’s love is to be able to accept what comes our way, especially when tragedy and hardships strike. God does not promise us that we will live a life without tragedy or hardships, but he does promise to be there with us in them, and that is what love does. Love comforts us in the darkest times and holds it’s hand out to help us walk through them. It never leaves us alone. It encourages us to keep going, keep trusting, and keep hoping, even when things seem impossible at the time. And it helps heal the hurts of our lives.