It’s a week of love. Valentine’s Day celebrated it and the beginning of Lent points us to Love crucified.
“But how could I be suffering so much if God loves me?”
Sometimes our enemy forces this secret question into our pain. In that same experience of anguish, the blind hymnwriter spilled these beautiful words quickly onto paper. By singing and playing this hymn, the Lord has comforted me with truths of the gospel, drowning the enemy’s lies. Let’s come to Him in song and Scripture, cherishing His love notes to us.
O Love that will not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in thee.
I give thee back the life I owe,
that in thine ocean depths its flow
may richer, fuller be.
“O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go,” Matheson, G. (1882).
In Jesus Christ’s sinless life and satisfying death
Let’s remember the gospel, beloved. How could a holy, holy, holy God allow us into His presence? We were born sinners and God’s enemies; there’s no way to avoid God’s justice against sin. So, in His deep love for us, He gave us Jesus, whose perfect and sinless life and death satisfied all of God’s just anger against our sin. His righteous anger has been forever replaced by everlasting covenantal love for us. Our suffering doesn’t change this at all.
I have loved you with an everlasting love;
therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you (Jer. 31:3 ESV).
In my Light of the world
O Light that follows all my way,
I yield my flick’ring torch to thee.
My heart restores its borrowed ray,
that in thy sunshine’s blaze its day
may brighter, fairer be.
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it (Jn. 1:5 ESV).
What does the hymnnwriter do in his agony? As this world’s evil darkness threatens, he surrenders his day to Jesus and looks to the Light of the world for strength to keep on. Jesus overcame the darkness of sin and evil on the cross, so we have His light, in the hardest of days. What can I surrender to His loving and powerful care today?
Joy in Jesus who seeks me
O Joy that seekest me through pain,
I cannot close my heart to thee.
I trace the rainbow through the rain,
and feel the promise is not vain,
that morn shall tearless be.
Jesus sought us when we were dead in our inborn sin (Col. 2:13) and lost in darkness. The Lord drew us to Himself and opened our hearts to turn to His love, never to close again. Now, our Good Shepherd Jesus rejoices in us, His sheep. Do you hear His joy?
That joy took Him to the cross for you and me. He founded our faith in Him. He is perfecting our faith now, with intimate and empathetic compassion for us in the pain we now endure.
Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross (Heb. 12:2a ESV).
God will never let me go
God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Rom. 5:8 ESV).
God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (Rom. 5:5 ESV).
I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand (Jn. 10:28 ESV).
See these verbs? They’re active gifts, originating from our Father. They’re ongoing comforts of permanent love, all the way into eternity when He tenderly wipes away our tears.
Does God really love me?
Yes.
Not only that, but God’s love will never let us go. It held Jesus to the cross and it’s holding onto us. As we walk weakly and feel we can’t endure another day, He is holding us up. It is all His doing, all His gift, all His grace.
All His love.
Reminders in gospel-centered songs
Dear friend, my prayer for you in today’s hard is
that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God (Eph. 3:17-19 ESV).
When Satan uses our suffering to question our Father’s love for us, let’s look to the cross and the gospel. For me, some days, it’s hourly. Many days, we must fight the lies with His Word.
For me, singing Scriptural songs about the love of Jesus for us, proven by His work on the cross, has been His strengthening gift. Would you like a prayer and playlist of hymns, Psalms, and gospel-centered songs to help you sing…and know?
I’m praying that our Father will use my weekly playlist gifts to encourage you in all you are suffering. Sign up here if it would bless you, beloved.
