Knowing Where to Look – June 28, 2020

God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:8

Knowing Where to Look

Sometimes I forget how powerful the disease of sin truly is in my life. I forget that my sinfulness infects even my thinking, even my sense of logic.

For example, I dictate to God how he can show his love for me. I demand that he demonstrate his love for me by giving me good health, a good job, a stable family, money in the bank, popularity, prestige, a solid retirement plan. But when my health fades, when the good job goes away, when there’s heartbreak in the family, when the money dries up, when I feel like a stranger around my friends, I accuse him of not loving me. I accuse him of not caring. I even wonder if he exists.

Perhaps your line of thinking has often gone the same way.

How blind we can be, you and I. How arrogant and foolish. We question God’s love, even his very existence, all the while ignoring the ultimate demonstration of his love for us: The death of his Son for your sins and mine.

But there’s the beauty, the very way by which God demonstrates his love for us is also the very thing that washes away the stains of our foolish arrogance. It also seals God’s promise that his love will guide even the pain and sorrow of life for our good.

Prayer:
Heavenly Father, fix my eyes on the cross, the ultimate demonstration of your love for me. And empower me to see your love at work even in the pain and sorrow of my life. Amen.