Sunday Ponderings ~ God's Incomparable Love

Sympathy ~ Briton Riviere

Pondering this afternoon a passage from Romans 8, verses 31-39, where God through the Apostle Paul is assuring us of His love.  

"What shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? .... I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (v.35... 39).

Have you ever wondered if God loves you? I have. Have you ever wondered that if He does love you, does He really care about what you're going through? I have. Have you ever wondered if He's even there, or here, or anywhere? I have. But then I reflect on this verse that tells me nothing is able to separate me from God's love. Nothing.

I have this framed sentiment on my kitchen wall that reminds me as well--

I believe in the sun, even if it does not shine.
I believe in love, even if I do not feel it.
I believe in God, even when he is silent.

I feel like God is often silent. But I'm learning that He's not silent as often as I feel it. Silence can come from having no source, or silence can come from not hearing the source. One characterizes the giver. The other characterizes the receiver. I believe that most of what I consider God's silence is really that I'm not hearing, not that there is no source of God's love.

One of the reasons we question God's love for us is that we evaluate His love relative to our own. If we subscribe to a popular psychological school of thought, we might interpret according to our own "love language," what other people do that makes us feel loved. I feel loved when He.....  Or, what would I do for myself in the same situation to show love, if I were God? I would do thus and thus, and because God isn't doing thus and thus, then He must not care, or is not there, or is afar off. But God's love far transcends our own idea of love. His is a perfect love.

God knows how I feel about Him. He knows my feelings are human. I believe that's one reason that He sent His Holy Spirit to dwell within me as a believer and comfort me. He is the Comforter, and He is the Interceder.

"... the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose (verses 26-28).

What shall separate me from the love of God? Nothing. Not even my own idea of how God should show His love toward me.

Unto thee, O LORD, do I lift up my soul. O my God, I trust in thee.... Shew me thy ways, O LORD; teach me thy paths. Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day (Ps. 25:1,4,5).