Lesson Eight
KNOWING AND EXPERIENCING GOD’S LOVE
(Chapters 9 and 10)
CENTRAL IDEA
We can trust God’s love because He loves us with a perfect and infinite love, which was demonstrated on Calvary. Because of our union with Christ, we are secure in that love.
Examining Trust
It seems that the more we come to believe in and accept the sovereignty of God over every event of our lives, the more we are tempted to question His love. We think, “If God is in control of this adversity and can do something about it, why doesn’t He?”
There is no doubt that the most convincing evidence of God’s love in all of Scripture is His giving His Son to die for our sins. The extent of God’s love at Calvary is seen in both the infinite cost to Him of giving His one and only Son, and in the wretched and miserable condition of those He loved.
Any time we are tempted to doubt God’s love for us we should go back to the Cross. We should reason somewhat in this fashion: If God loved me enough to give His Son to die for me when I was His enemy, surely He loves me enough to care for me now that I am His child. Having loved me to the ultimate extent at the Cross, He cannot possibly fail to love me in my times of adversity.
If we are to trust God in adversity, we must use our minds in those times to reason through the great truths of God’s sovereignty, wisdom, and love as they are revealed to us in the Scriptures. We must not allow our emotions to hold sway over our minds. Rather, we must seek to let the truth of God rule our minds. Our emotions must become subservient to the truth. This does not mean we do not feel the pain of adversity and heartache. We feel it keenly. Nor does it mean we should seek to bury our emotional pain in a stoic-like attitude. We are meant to feel the pain of adversity, but we must resist allowing that pain to cause us to lapse into hard thoughts about God.
The infinite, measureless love of God is poured out upon us, not because of who we are or what we are, but because we are in Christ Jesus. It is very important that we grasp this crucial concept that God’s love to us is in Christ. Just as God’s love to His Son cannot change, so His love to us cannot change, because we are in union with the One He loves. God’s love to us can no more waver than His love to His Son can waver. God does not look within us for a reason to love us. He loves us because we are in Christ Jesus.
God’s sovereignty is exercised primarily for His glory. But because you and I are in Christ Jesus, His glory and our good are linked together. Because we are united with Christ, whatever is for His glory is also for our good. And whatever is for our good is for His glory.
God cannot forsake us because we are His children, in blessed union with His Son. We cannot be cut off from His sight. But we can be cut off from the assurance of His love when we allow doubt and unbelief to gain a foothold in our hearts.
The Bible’s assurance of the sovereignty and constancy of God’s love does not mean that we should not expect adversity. We mistakenly look for tokens of God’s love in happiness. We should instead look for them in His faithful and persistent work to conform us to Christ. God in His infinite wisdom and perfect love will never over-discipline us; He will never allow any adversity in our lives that is not ultimately for our good.
God disciplines us with reluctance, though He does it faithfully. He does not delight in our adversities, but He will not spare us that which we need to grow more and more into the likeness of His Son. It is our imperfect spiritual condition that makes discipline necessary.
God’s love is unfailing; His grace is always sufficient. But there is even more good news. He is with us in our troubles.
God’s unfailing love for us is an objective fact affirmed over and over in the Scriptures. It is true whether we believe it or not. Our doubts do not destroy God’s love, nor does our faith create it. It originates in the very nature of God, who is love, and it flows to us through our union with His beloved Son.
But the experience of that love and the comfort it is intended to bring is dependent upon our believing the truth about God’s love as it is revealed to us in the Scriptures. Doubts about God’s love, allowed to harbor in our hearts, will surely deprive us of the comfort of His love.
We are just as dependent upon the Holy Spirit to enable us to trust in God’s love as we are dependent upon Him to enable us to obey His commands. But just as we are responsible to obey in confidence that He is at work in us, so we are responsible to trust Him in that same attitude of dependence and confidence.
With God’s help we, too, can come to the place, even in the midst of our adversities, where we will be able to say, “I trust in Your unfailing love.”
Developing Trust
1. What observations about God’s love can you make from these verses?
Psalm 103:11
Isaiah 54:10
Zephaniah 3:17
Romans 8:38-39
2. a. How does God feel about punishing the wicked (see Ezekiel 18:23, 32; 33:11; 2 Peter 3:9)?
b. Read Lamentations 3:32-33. How does God feel about the afflictions He allows us to suffer when we sin?
3. a. In what event do we see the supreme demonstration of God’s love for us? Read 1 John 4:9-10.
b. Restate Romans 5:6-8 in your own words.
4. a. What experiences in your life have tempted you to doubt God’s love?
b. When you have doubted God’s love, what has helped you regain your confidence in His love for you?
5. a. Based on Ephesians 1:3-6, how does being “in Christ” affect God’s love for us?
b. How does John 15:1-8 describe our relationship with Jesus?
c. If the Father loves Jesus, then what are the implications for us?
d. What does pruning have to do with love (see John 15:2)?
6. Read Lamentations 3:17-24.
a. What feelings did Jeremiah express in verses 17-20?
b. How did he deal with those feelings (see verses 21-24)?
c. How do you deal with your feelings of discouragement and defeat?
d. What could you learn from Jeremiah about handling these feelings?
7. a. What can we learn from Hebrews 12:5-11 about why God disciplines us?
b. When have you experienced God’s discipline? Describe one instance.
c. What lessons did you learn?
d. Did you sense God’s love in the process? Explain.
8. God gives us the grace we need each day. We don’t have the grace today for the “what ifs” of tomorrow.
a. Describe a time when it was especially important for you to focus on God’s daily grace without looking ahead.
b. What happened when you tried to look down the road to see how you would cope tomorrow?
9. Summarize what God promises in the following verses.
Psalm 32:10
Isaiah 43:2-3
10. Read Psalm 13.
a. Have you ever felt as David did when he wrote Psalm 13:1-2? If so, describe those feelings in your own words.
b. How did David end this psalm (see verses 5-6)?
c. How do you think it is possible to get from the feelings of verses 1-2 to the decision in verses 5-6?
11. a. To what extent do you currently experience God’s love?
b. What do you think is the major barrier keeping you from feeling God’s love for you?
c. How can you start to remove that barrier?
Trust in Action