Settling For Love

“And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love.” 1 John 4:16

Until we settle this truth deep in our hearts we will always struggle with our faith when adversity strikes. We will spend more time calculating and manipulating from the middle of our circumstances instead of settling upfront our belief and reliance on God’s love. Keeping a spiritual perspective on suffering is essential in the life of a Christian. We can spend unnecessary time and emotional energy trying to ‘figure out God’ instead of seeing how God is working in our circumstances.

The life of Jesus exemplified this spiritual principle as He never questioned God’s love through any of His suffering. The matter was settled deep in His heart before the pain was experienced. In all of His circumstances Jesus had a ‘loving Father perspective’ instead of a ‘poor me perspective.’ He knew His Father was at work around Him, and searched to find God’s activity in His life. He did not ask God to join Him in His work but the Son watched where His Father was working and joined Him. ‘Jesus gave them this answer: I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; He can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.’ John 5:19. Jesus spent His time on responses to God's activity instead of the motivation of God's actions.

We must pray and look above our circumstances to gain the perspective of God. Before we ask for His perspective we must settle in our hearts that God is love. We must know this as heart knowledge and rely on this as truth. Once settled in our hearts and minds, we can then watch God’s activity around us and join Him in His work. We will no longer have a division of mind and heart but a solid truth of God’s love.