To You Who Doubt God's Love

Sometimes we doubt God’s love.  Circumstances. Challenges. Unanswered prayers. Life-shattering events. Sometimes the rug gets pulled out from under our lives, and we get the wind knocked out of us. Maybe you’re wondering if God loves you.

If I could, I’d take you by the hand  and walk with you to the most beautifully broken scene in all of history.  As we walk together, I’d let you lean in on me and tell your story. You’d cry ugly tears and I’d remind you it’s ok to weep when you’re broken.  

We’d walk long, dusty roads. As the roar of the crowd increases,  I’d know we are getting close. We would work our way to the front of the mob until we are standing in front of the object of their scorn.

Together, we’d see in horror,  One so badly beaten He is barely recognizable.  There, hanging on a cross in shameful nakedness, dripping pools of blood, we’d see the Son of God, dying in our place. 

Though it would be hard to look toward the cross, I’d plead with you to catch Jesus’ eye.  His eyes would tell you this: “I know suffering. I know pain. I know loneliness, betrayal, loss, and rejection.  I know what it is to be misunderstood, lied about, unjustly accused, and wrongfully condemned.”

“This is what I came for.  I came to seek you, though you weren’t looking for me. I came to be broken, so you could be made whole.” 

“He saved others, let Him save HImself!” they shout.  

“I choose not to save myself because I am saving you.  Not from a broken political system, or a failing marriage, or an uncomfortable life.  I came to be made sin for you, so that you could be made righteous.”

We would weep together. For our own sin, and for our Savior.  Before the cross, we would have no words, just belief. There, God would mend us. He would bind up our broken hearts, he would heal our wounds and set us free.  And He would erase every doubt of His love for us.

When we begin to believe  God doesn’t love us, we’ve lost sight of the cross.  Today, we remember Jesus. Though He was God,  He didn’t grasp His position, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave.  He laid aside the glory of heaven to endure the most humiliating and excruciating death. It seems beyond comprehension to imagine a crown of thorns on the head of the king of kings. To think of the hands that formed us, nailed to a tree. And to know He came in obedience to His Father, who chose to crush Him, for our sake. (See Phil 2 and Isa 53)

Image by James Chan from Pixabay

Your life isn’t going as planned? Your suffering is more than you can bear? Your pain has caused you to lose sight of His love?  Come back to the cross.

If we are looking for the proof of God’s love in our circumstances, we will always doubt and question.  But, if His love is demonstrated in this, while we were still His enemies, Christ walked a road of humiliation, was mocked, tortured and crucified, to restore us to the Father, then we can know for sure we are unquestionably loved by God, even during our darkest hours. Especially during our darkest hours.