Choose a Devotional Below:
A Friends Sacrifice Act Now All In As Good As It Gets Buried Talent Immanuel Others Centered Ripple Effect Sinkhole The 26th The Junk We’ve Been Through The Trouble with the Light Vertically Challenged Who Are You Why Do Bad Things Happen
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A Friend’s Sacrifice
Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. (John 15:13, ESV)
Jesus is the ultimate example of love. He was willing to sacrifice everything for everyone. He gave His life so that we may call Him friend. His example of sacrificial love can be seen even now, in some of the most horrifying and war-stricken areas of the world. In his book Standing Strong through the Storm, Paul Estabrooks tells this story of a young boy’s ultimate act of love for his friend in the midst of chaos and violence all around him:
The mortar rounds landed in an orphanage run by missionaries. The missionaries and one or two children were killed outright and several more children were wounded including one girl about eight years old. The medical staff who arrived to help soon realized that the young girl was the most critically injured. Without quick action she would die from shock and loss of blood. When explained to the other children that a blood transfusion was imperative, the request for a blood donor met with wide-eyed silence. Then one small hand went up and a young boy volunteered. He was quickly laid on a pallet, his arm swabbed with alcohol, and the needle inserted into his vein. Through the ordeal, he lay stiff and silent but continued to sob later turning into steady, silent crying. The medical team kept asking if it was hurting but he would shake his head and continue to cry. After a while the boy stopped crying, opened his eyes and looked questioningly at the nurse who took the needle out of his arm. When she nodded, a look of great relief spread over his face. The boy had all along thought he was dying. He misunderstood, thinking that he was to give all his blood so the other little girl could live. She was his friend.7
Jesus loved us so much that He actually did give all of His blood for us, His friends. That was our Friend’s sacrifice.
Act Now
So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. (Matthew 5:23-24, ESV)
Every Christian is at war with his own selfishness, pride, ego, and lust (James 4:1). We are bound to lose a battle or two in this war within ourselves, and our failures will certainly hurt others, but our willingness to forgive and to ask for forgiveness must be paramount in our lives.
Only a forgiving heart can please God, and only a forgiven person can truly forgive. Forgiveness comes from Jesus Christ, and Jesus did what the Father’s righteousness alone could not do: become sin. The Father’s righteousness demands penalty for every sin and Jesus took that penalty in order to forgive us and to empower us to forgive others. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:20-21, ESV)
If you have not reconciled with someone that you have wronged, drop what you are doing and ask for forgiveness. Get right with others before you do anything else, because God cares more about your love, kindness, and forgiveness than any of your tithes, offerings, or service that is void of forgiveness (Hosea 6:6, Matthew 5:23-24, 9:13). Act now! Do not wait. You may not have another chance to forgive.
All In
And may your hearts be fully committed to the LORD our God, to live by his decrees and obey his commands, as at this time.” (1 Kings 8:61, NIV)
If you are familiar with the card game poker, you have probably heard of the term, “all in!” It is a term used to describe someone’s commitment to the cards that they have been dealt- their “hand.” They have invested in it and are unwilling to quit, or “fold.” Eventually, you will reach a point where you must either quit, and lose, or risk it all and resolve to play your hand until the end.
We have all been dealt a hand in life. Perhaps it may not seem fair at times. You may feel like you got a raw deal. Maybe you did. Maybe you were born into a horribly abusive family. Maybe you are living with a crippling disability. Maybe your wife has left you and you just can’t seem to pick up the pieces. We did not deal the cards of life, but God has allowed us to have them, and we must play the hand out until the end.
It is your choice. You can do nothing, but you’ll lose. Life will pass you by until you have nothing left. If you fold, you also lose. You are a quitter- a coward. But when you decide to risk it all- when you decide to bet big and play the hand that has been dealt to you- an interesting thing happens: the cards that may not have looked so good before, may start to look like a winning hand. God wants us to win with the cards we have, but we must be fully committed. We must bet big and put our faith in Him, because a Christian always has the winning hand, if you’re all in.
As Good as it Gets
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. (Romans 8:18-21, ESV)
Not to put too fine a point on it, but sometimes life just kind of sucks. Our time from birth until death can be marked with so much pain and suffering that we may lose sight of the freedom we have in Jesus, but rest assured its coming, and it’ll only get better.
We can easily forget about the joy and the hope that we have in life when it is mixed with so much pain. The pain that follows the loss of loved ones, a rebellious child, even the torturous violence that our brothers and sisters face in other parts of the world for professing their faith in Christ. But, even in the midst of all our pain, we should be encouraged. Because Jesus has already overcome every hardship we will face and there is nothing that can take away the love of Christ. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:37-39, ESV)
For the person that does not know Jesus, this life is as good as it gets. All the suffering, all the pain, heartache, loss, emptiness- this is as good as it will ever be. But for a follower of Jesus, this present life is only painful for a short time. All of the suffering, the pain, heartache, loss, and emptiness- this is as bad as it will ever be. Do not allow the trials of this life cloud your view of what is to come. Our eternity will be free from every pain, trouble, and tear (Revelation 21:1-4) and it only comes through the Son of God, Jesus Christ (Acts 4:12). And that is as good as anything could ever get.
Buried Talent
To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. (Matthew 25:15, 29, ESV)
Although this passage is specifically about money (a “talent” was a unit of money worth around twenty years wages), the teaching principle in this text is the same for as a person’s individual gifts, or talents. So, what are your talents? Some guys are athletic and some are good with numbers. Some guys are very personable and charming, while others are introverts and are not as socially adept. Regardless of how much talent you possess, or are lacking, what matters most is what you do with your talent(s).
In Matthew 25, Jesus tells a parable of three servants. All three of these servants belong to the same master and have all been given the same instructions: take care of their master’s things while he is gone. All three servants have also been given differing amounts of “talents” (remember, one talent was worth approximately twenty years of wages). One was given five talents, one was given two, and one was given a single talent. The master knew his servants and distributed talents according to their abilities. Their goal is to increase what they have been given and please their master. The first two pleased their master, but the other servant squandered his talent and buried it. He was cast out of the master’s presence and what little he was given was taken from him and given to another. He had a bad day.
There are three things that most interest me about this parable:
- Each man was rewarded equally. Both the five-talent man and the two-talent man were rewarded equally, and the one-talent man would have also been equally rewarded had he done something with his talent, but he did nothing but burry it and give it back.
- None of the men were compared to each other. They were only judged by what each of them had done with what was given to them.
- The man that failed his master never really knew him. Unlike the other men, he had the wrong impression of his master and was scared of him. …‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed,so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.’ (Matthew 25:24-25, ESV)
Our Master knows us well and He has given us everything that we need to be successful for Him and earn His praise. We are to use what the Lord has given us in order to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ until our He returns. We have no excuse. Use it or lose it, because having little to work with is never an excuse for doing little work. It’s just burying talent.
Immanuel
She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us). (Matthew 1:21-23, ESV)
What does Immanuel have to do with Christmas? To answer this question we must go all the way back to the beginning.When God created the world He created it perfectly, exactly the way He wanted it. We lived in God’s presence perfectly and without sin. He wanted to be intimately close “with us.” He made us to fellowship with Him- to hang out with Him all the time. God literally walked in the garden with Adam and Eve, and for a time we actually did share a very deep personal relationship with God…until we sinned. That’s when we separated ourselves from God and placed a permanent and impenetrable barrier between ourselves and God. That’s also why we feel so distant from God when we sin- when we choose sin over surrender- we separated ourselves from God. God never left us, we left Him.
So, as a direct result of our sin and our separation we became enemies of God. We introduced sin into the perfect human race and the perfect world that He created. That’s why we have anger, pride, greed, and murder. That’s why we have earthquakes, floods, and tsunamis. That’s why we have birth defects, diseases, and death. Our sin separated us from God, and it made us enemies of God (Colossians 1:21, Romans 5:10).
Furthermore, as a result of Adam and Eve’s rebellion, God banished them from the perfect paradise of Eden. Then, He began His long and painful redemptive work of the human race. This redemptive work is culminated in the person and work of Jesus Christ. It is through His birth, death, and resurrection that we are made right again with God. Jesus breaks that sin barrier that we put between ourselves and God, He buys us with His death on the cross, He gives us the Holy Spirit to live inside of us, and He brings us back into that close intimate friendship. For God in all His fullness was pleased to live in Christ, and through Him God reconciled everything to Himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross. This includes you who were once far away from God. You were His enemies, separated from Him by your evil thoughts and actions. Yet now He has reconciled you to Himself through the death of Christ in His physical body. As a result, He has brought you into His own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before Him without a single fault. (Colossians 1:19-22, NLT)
You see, it is through Jesus Christ that God is “with us” again. What does Immanuel have to do with Christmas? Everything. It means Jesus. It means God is with us.
Others Centered
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. (Philippians 2:3-4, NIV)
Have you ever noticed that the more you focus on yourself the more miserable you become? The more self-absorbed and self-serving you are the less fulfilled you feel. But when you serve others and put their happiness above your own, you immediately feel overwhelmingly contentment. There is no mystery behind this principle. It is simply to be “others-centered” in the same way that Jesus is.
Serving others has become underrated these days, but it is the call of Christ to every Christian. It is the model Jesus Christ gave us. He calls us to love and serve each other because He loved and served us first (1 John 4:19). Jesus made himself a slave in every single way for us, “Though he was God,he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave, and was born as a human being.” (Philippians 2:6-7, NLT) He lowered himself (a key component of grace) to the position of a slave so that he may be approached by everyone. Jesus was born in a barn, had a common name and appearance, and grew up in a bad neighborhood, all with the intent of relating to every one of us.
Regardless of your appearance, social status, or geographical origin, you may have a relationship with Jesus, and He can relate to you. Establish service to others as a primary goal in your life and you will be happier, because you will be others-centered.
Ripple Effect
You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you! (Isaiah 26:3, NLT)
Have you ever seen a small pebble thrown into a perfectly peaceful and undisturbed lake? The tiniest little rock can disturb even the largest and tranquil lake. The ripple travels over the entire surface of the lake, from one side to the other, and the minor effort it took to throw that pebble into the water will intensify greatly. One ripple multiplies into many, crashing into anything in the way. And the effects of the ripple can be seen and felt long after that pebble is thrown. This is called, “The Ripple Effect.”
After Christmas one year, I went to the store to return an expensive children’s toy. Soon, however, it became apparent that the store would not be returning the item and I left empty handed. I was angry and frustrated and soon realized that I had allowed my personal feelings to change how I was driving, what I was thinking about, and how I was interacting with people around me. I let this small and insignificant toy ruin half of my day before I told myself, “It’s just a stupid toy, Steve. Get over it!”
Our hearts can be very much like a lake. When we remain in close relationship to Jesus and keep our hearts in tune with Him, He keeps us as calm and peaceful. But, if we allow a little pebble to disrupt the perfect peace we have in Jesus, the waves can crash into everything. The ripple effect will be felt throughout the entire lake all day long. If we are not careful we can let a stupid toy ruin our entire day and change our attitude and our actions. The next time you let a little pebble start this destructive ripple effect, ask Jesus to calm you like that undisturbed still lake. You may be surprised at how quickly you find peace and are able to refocus on the Lord.
Sinkhole
But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” (Matthew 7:26-27, NIV)
A sinkhole is created when the ground beneath the surface is rich in a type of rock formation that is easily dissolvable. If enough water seeps into these formations they will create a large crater and suddenly collapse. The ensuing collapse draws in all of its surroundings as it wreaks havoc indiscriminately. What seemed to be a solid and strong foundation of rock before, has now become a pit of deep disaster. Sinkholes turn dirt to mud, rock to rubble, and your tower into your tomb. It, quite literally, buries you alive.
The surface of a man’s life may look stable, strong, and secure, but anything that we may be tempted to stand on rather than the Word of God will collapse under pressure and wreak havoc in our lives. Jesus is the only secure foundation that can support our weight. Everything we attempt to stand on in this world is fragile and unstable, and with every step we take on our own we chance becoming buried in the mess that we create.
Have you ever fallen into the proverbial sinkhole? Perhaps you had been walking through life and suddenly, the ground beneath you gives way. You had placed all your weight (or at least much more than you should) on a career, a relationship, your health, or your finances, and it has given way under your weight and has fallen apart. You tried to reach for something to cling to- anything that will slow the impending painful and sudden stop- only to find that everything is collapsing in on you. It’s only a matter of time before the real rough weather of life exposes our hidden personal vulnerabilities. If you are falling into a sinkhole, stop grasping for the very same things that will bury you. Grasp for the only One that is able to save you from the wreckage. Ask Jesus to be your solid rock to stand on. Avoid the sinkhole.
The 26th
“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us). (Matthew 1:23, ESV)
Every year we celebrate Christmas on December 25th. We break out the Christmas lights and decorations, hang mistletoe over a door frame, and a few stockings over the fireplace. We listen to Jingle Bell Rock and Silent Night while we cram a years’ worth of shopping into a few short days, all in the hopes that this year we can capture a little of that “Christmas Cheer.” The kids open presents and get tired of playing with their new overpriced toys within minutes and you pick up all the wrapping paper from the floor. Then, the day after Christmas, all of the decorations- the lights on the tree and in the front lawn, the lights strewn across the house and over the bushes, and the inflatable nativity with baby Jesus- get shoved right back into the attic and forgotten about for another year. Life resumes exactly as it had been before Christmas. We put baby Jesus back in the box and resume our regularly scheduled lives. We forget about the gift of God and we focus on the gifts from God while we go about living our lives for ourselves for yet another year. What a shame.
Christmas is about more than just ornaments and decorations, or gifts and garland. The gift of Jesus Christ- God Himself becoming man to live and feel as we do, to live a perfect life and die for the sins of all humanity, to forgive the sins of the repentant, to empower us to live a life of love and freedom in Him-is not just an ornament that we can pack away on the 26th. We don’t shove Jesus in with all the decorations and wait for next year. Every single moment of our lives is a celebration of Immanuel. Jesus is “God with us.” He goes with us everywhere every day, even on the 26th of December. Celebrate that.
The Junk We’ve Been Through
All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. (2 Corinthians 1:3-4, NLT)
If you have ever been through a crisis or traumatic experience, or know anyone who has, you know that it is never something pleasant to think or talk about. For instance, victims of trauma and abuse will avoid a particular subject matter at almost all costs, refusing to open that door from the past for fear experiencing more pain. If one eventually chooses to face their hurts and heal from their wounds it will be an extremely difficult and painful journey. But, until that happens, true healing cannot begin. And in the long and painful journey of healing, the hurt will be in desperate need of comfort. It’s amazing how comforted we can feel from someone else that has gone through the same thing. When we choose to face the junk we have been through, the words, “I have been there before and I know what you’re going through,” make an unparalleled impact. We know we are not in it alone. Someone can relate to us in our time of need and we can find comfort. Eventually, we can heal and then become a comfort to others. Thinks kind of the point.
Sometimes God allows us to go through some really rough stuff because He knows that we can handle it. Maybe the person next to you is not as strong as you and cannot handle the junk that God has allowed you to handle. Maybe, by bringing you to your breaking point you had to draw strength from Him in order to accomplish His purposes in your life. As a direct result of our hardships we will also have a closer and more intimate relationship with God and be better off for it. We will become stronger, more resilient, and more able to truly relate and connect to those that are going through the same junk we have endured. God promises that He will make everything in our life (even the terrible things) be used as a benefit to us and further His purposes and that any suffering we may endure is miniscule in comparison to the glory that will be revealed to us (Romans 8:18-30). Perhaps helping others through those crappy times gives us a glimpse into how God accomplishes Romans 8:18-30?
When there is no way to reach that stubborn and rebellious kid, that coworker that is angry about his divorce, the friend that has been abused, or the one that is struggling with an addiction, you may be the very person that God wants to use in their life. The one person that can say, “I have been through that and this is how God has brought healing to me.” This is one of the reasons God took on flesh and lived as a man: to relate to us and comfort us so that we can help and comfort others (2 Corinthians 1:3-4). Jesus has already gone through the junk that we go through. He comforts us and we are to show that same comfort to others. As tough as our stuff may be, it is the junk we’ve been through that qualifies us to be the healing hands of Jesus Christ. What are you doing with the junk you’ve been through?
The Trouble with the Light
And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.” (John 3:19-21, ESV)
As followers of Jesus Christ, we are the light of the world (Matthew 5:14). We have a hope and a peace in us that the world does not have and cannot understand. We light up a room just by walking into it. With a smile and an encouraging word, we can spread the warmth and love of Christ to the world around us. It is an outpouring of what the Lord has deposited within us and it is recognizable to all.
There is a spiritual representation of every man that is perceived by everyone he meets. This spiritual representation is a direct reflection of what is in his heart and it is manifest outwardly by his demeanor, body language, actions, and attitude. He cannot hide it from anyone and it is perceived differently by different people, depending on their spiritual health (2 Corinthians 2:15-16). We are a joy to most but are hated by our enemy. To the one that hates the light, we are a threat that must be stopped at all cost, and he will stop at nothing to try and snuff out our blinking beacon.
The light of Jesus attracts the lost and provides a way out of the darkness for all those who are looking for a way out, but we must always remember that there is an enemy out there that hates the light. He hates the light because it exposes the filth of the world and he will stop at nothing to try and shoot out that light. Jesus brings light to a darkened and lost world: the light of life, love, salvation, and hope. So, smile and shine the light of Jesus today to a lost world, even if people have trouble with the light.
Vertically Challenged
By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:35, ESV)
How can you tell if your relationship with God is right? Your vertical relationship with God and your horizontal relationships with others both converge together in one spot: at the center of your heart. The point of convergence is our personal cross, so to speak. A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35, ESV) Whenever there is a lack of love towards your neighbor there is always a lack of love towards God.
Jesus commanded us to love God with all of our heart, all our soul, all our strength, and all of our minds, and to love one another. Those are the two commandments that the entire Law is based upon (Deuteronomy 6:5, Matthew 22:37-40, Mark 12:30-31, Luke 10:25-28). These commands are inseparably tied together. Refusing to love the one is refusing to love the other.
In the New Testament, the Greek word “agape” used for these commands to love is sometimes translated “charity.” It is the sort of love that is self-sacrificial and does not seek anything in return. This is the shirt-off-your-back- kind of love for someone. It’s the kind of love that turns off the football game during the Super Bowl when your wife needs to vent about her day. It’s the kind of love that goes without Christmas presents that you don’t need so that your wife and kids can have the Christmas presents that they don’t need. It’s the kind of love that serves as an example to the lost, even when no one is watching. And it’s the kind of love that Jesus showed us by willingly going to the cross to pay for our daily selfishness and failures.
Showing this type of love is never easy. If it were, God would not have had to do it for us. We can show love in so many ways; they do not always need to be huge life-changing events. Letting someone in front of you during rush hour traffic or in the grocery store are both generous acts of love. Standing up for a coworker that is mocked and refusing to gossip will show both love and loyalty. Giving your wife the night off from cooking, cleaning, bathing the kids, or folding and putting away the laundry, can be a big “I love you” statement. Shutting up and not offering a solution to her problem may be the biggest small thing a husband can do for a wife.
Not every act of love is a monumental task, but every act of love makes a monumental impact, both horizontally and vertically. Start showing love for your neighbor and soon you may realize that you are not quite so vertically challenged.
Who Are You?
For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love hepredestined us for adoption to sonshipthrough Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us. (Ephesians 1:4-8, NIV)
What is the first thing that comes to mind when someone asks, “What do you do?” Most likely you think of your employment. You are your profession: a cop, corrections officer, fireman, computer technician, electrician, teacher, cashier, cook, mechanic etc. You have automatically equated your employment to your identity, but is that really what defines you? Maybe you have allowed the sins of your past to define you. You may have been a liar, cheat, thief, fornicator, homosexual, or an adulterer at one time (and if you are still living in these un-repented sins then you have much bigger problems), but our past sins do not define who we are. Jesus does. He redeemed us and set us free to be who He created us to be (Isaiah 43:1). Unfortunately, we often allow things other than the Gospel of Jesus Christ to define us.
So who are we created to be? Before God created anything, He made up His mind to make you and I into creatures who reflect Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). We are His reflection, His image. We are chosen to be servants of the Most High. We are children of the Father of all creation, adopted into the family because of Jesus Christ (Romans 8:17). We are completely known and accepted by Him (Psalm 139:1-6). We are the twinkle in His eye when He thinks of the world that He formed out of nothing. We are valuable. Valuable enough that He sent His Son to be murdered for us so that we can spend eternity with Him.
We will always be disappointed when we choose to be anything other than a follower of Jesus Christ. We are not the sum total of our accomplishments or our failures. We are chosen, redeemed, renewed, family, and loved. Christian, that’s who you are.
Why Do Bad Things Happen?
O LORD, even if I would argue my case with you, you would always be right. Yet, I want to talk to you about your justice. Why do wicked people succeed? Why do treacherous people have peace and quiet? (Jeremiah 12:1, GW)
So, here is the question: If God is all powerful and full of love and mercy, why does He allow so much pain and suffering in the world? It is a question that most of us ask at some point in our lives while we are in our most painful moments- when we just can’t understand why God allows the world to be so painful, but this question really amounts to an accusation that we bring against God. Asking this question means that we are accusing God of doing something wrong to harm us, but God never intended on our pain or suffering.
Satan, whose name means accuser in the Hebrew language, is always trying to place accusations against God in our mind. But if we accuse our Creator of doing something that is not in our best interests, we are accusing Him of doing something that is outside of His character. The fact is, we chose to bring pain and suffering into this world. It’s our fault, not His (Genesis 3:6). And that leads us to the other most common question: Where is God in all my suffering? The answer? In short: He is sitting next to you, weeping with you, and comforting you through it all (2 Corinthians 1:3-7).
Please understand, God hates when bad things happen to us. He always wants the best for us (Jeremiah 29:11), but God’s love does not prohibit us, or those around us, from sinning and causing pain and suffering in the world. We all have free will. The created nature of man, as well as the created nature of the world, have been fractured from its original design as a direct result of the sin that has been introduced into this world (Romans 8:22). And because of this distorted nature, we are actually inclined to choose to do what is wrong rather than what is right. Furthermore, just because I may not understand something that God allows to happen to me, or my neighbor, does not mean that I am not loved by God. Have you ever noticed that most people never have time for God until something painful happens in their lives? C.S. Lewis said, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains; it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”
Let’s remember that God allowed the biggest tragedy in all of human history: the brutal torturous murder of His own perfect Son, Jesus Christ. His pain beats anything I have or ever will go through. And, had this horrific gruesome tragedy never happened, you and I would be hopelessly and eternally damned. It was His love for us that allowed for His own Son’s painful death. God never promises an answer to all of our questions, but He does promise to be at our side through it all and to make good out of bad (Romans 8:28). We never know what God is doing behind the scenes and for what purpose He allows the pain in our lives; but if we did know, we wouldn’t have it any other way.