I trust in Your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in Your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, for He has been good to me.  Psalm 13:5-6

     In the book “Drawing Near to the Heart of God,” Cynthia Heald tells about attending with her husband a large conference that began with a dinner. She was seated at a table where the other two couples were renewing their acquaintance and her husband was being monopolized by a young man with many questions. She sat alone, not speaking with anyone. She felt like everyone was probably thinking how sad that no one wanted to talk to her. Her thoughts went to self-consciousness and self-pity: “There’s something wrong with me.” “No one loves me.”

     She felt the Lord say, “Is it true that no one loves you?” She answered in her mind, “God, I know You love me, but You have to!”

     God said back to her, “Yes, I do love you with an everlasting love. But my question is: Is my love enough for you?”

     She was rebuked. Her first response was of course, God’s love is enough. But then she realized that it shouldn’t matter if no one talked to her. She was fine. She was affirmed and loved by God. The feelings were not true. She writes, “I love God for pressing this question on my heart. I love God for allowing me to wallow in self-pity but then I love God for correcting me.”

     If we want to walk in the truth, we must focus less on God doing what we want Him to do so that we can feel what we want to feel and instead, in those uncomfortable places, listen for His words, His truth. C. S. Lewis (“The Problem of Pain”) said, “We want not so much a father in heaven as a grandfather in heaven, whose plan for the universe was such that it might be said at the end of each day, ‘A good time was had by all.’ Oh, I should very much like to live in a universe which was governed on such lines, but since it is abundantly clear that I don’t; and since I have reason to believe, nevertheless, that God is love, I conclude that my conception of love needs correction.”

     In real life, we are uncomfortable much of the time. Here is what the verse today is saying, “Though our feelings come and go, God’s love for us does not.” We can rejoice in that. Though we may wish for an easier path, He is good. Very good.

*Is the Lord’s love enough for you?

Lord, your immeasurable love is enough for me. Thank You that it is not dependent on my performance, my abilities, my physical appearance or my popularity. Your love encompasses all my life. How good You are! I am incredibly humbled and deeply grateful. Because of Your love, Amen.


Contact Rachel