But the greatest of these is love

How great is His love for us

I have been listening to Tim Keller sermons a lot lately. My bible studies have been weak like my mind and body were after treatment. But, as I said in an earlier post, my husband, my family, my friends, and my church community held me up when I was too low and tired. They shared the truth from God’s Word that gave me hope in the darkness. They loved me.

When I didn’t have the strength to study I found it was easier to listen to a sermon or book while I got ready for work or drove the kids around. In a sermon about suffering I heard a question that had me pondering for weeks. Tim Keller asked, “Do we love God for WHO He is or for WHAT He gives us?”

He goes on to describe that the only way to learn to love God for himself alone is through suffering. We have to suffer and not know why - to learn to love God. To serve Him and not worship for what you get out of it. You have to be in a condition where you’re getting nothing out of it all. God is creating us into who He wants us to be, a person who loves.

I grew up a fairytale-loving, princess-costume-wearing little girl and as I grew I only became more in love with love. Watching romcoms and love stories. I love a good book, especially with a love interest. But, I’ve grown to realize that love is even deeper than what we feel with our family, our friends, and our spouses.

A quote and picture came across my Instagram recently that said, “The enemy thought he had taken '“everything” from Job. But Job’s everything was God.” Sitting with that quote for a while now, I am starting to realize the truth in it. From the moment I first believed that Jesus was my savior and put my trust in him, I struggled to understand how or why He loves me.

It took years before I finally realized and accepted that His free gift of salvation wasn’t because of something I had done, but what He had done for me. Ephesians 2: 8-10 says it best, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

Looking back I can see how God pursued me. I bet you can reflect and see Him too. Even in the hurt. Maybe especially then. When trials come our way we tend to try and figure out what we may have done wrong and how we can fix it. God allows suffering in our lives because He loves us. How upside down is that!? But I know it’s true. I know it’s true because in every trial I have felt His presence and His peace. I have experienced His love through others and I know this to be true because more than once the enemy has taken my “everything” and I still love God. God is my everything.

The enemy doesn’t believe in love. He believes that we are all out for ourselves. That could be true to an extent, unless you have been, and are being, transformed by the Holy Spirit. God is creating us to love. His greatest commandment is to love God and love others (Matthew 2:37-39). But God gives us free will to choose to love. We are not actors in a grand play. As John Eldredge shared in his book, Epic, it sounds crazy to think that God knew giving us free will would wreak havoc on the earth and his people. He knew we would make a mess of things and chase after all the wrong things in search of love. Yet God gave us free will. Why?

Eldredge goes on to explain, “If you want a world where love is real you have to allow each person the freedom to choose.” God loves us. Love is chosen. You can’t force anyone to love.

Tim Keller explains in the sermon on suffering that if you’ve built your life on things, suffering pulls you further away into unhappiness. But if you have built your life on God’s love, suffering pulls you deeper into the source of your joy. Suffering drives you into Him. Union with God.

Jesus was the true sufferer. Jesus endured the cross for us so that we didn’t have to. He paid the penalty for our sin with nothing to gain. He did it because He loves us. Him for us. A covent love. Me for you. Not transactional. He suffered not so that we wouldn’t suffer, but for when we do suffer we become more like him. We love God for WHO He is and not for WHAT he does for us.

“So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:16-18). I am leaving a link to a song by Shane & Shane, “Though You Slay Me”. It features John Piper with Desiring God (another great resource). Hope it is as meaningful to you as it is to me. God loves you.

Questions of Suffering - sermon by Tim Keller

Epic, by John Eldredge

Though You Slay Me - Shane & Shane featuring John Piper