Show Me Your Glory: Reflections on God's Multifaceted HeartSample

God Abounds with Loyal Love

“God, how can you love me and let me hurt like this?”

I was at an all-time low in my relationship with God. My head knew the Bible verses about God’s love, but the pain in my soul screamed, God’s not good.

I tried to reason away the doubts, to shame my questions into submission. Yet the silent shouting continued.

In a moment of newfound vulnerability, I bared my soul to God. “I know you already see the thoughts I’m wrestling with. You hear the doubts terrorizing my soul. So I guess I’ll just bring them out into the open.

“How can you really be good? You could have prevented the pain that shattered me. If you love me, why didn’t you stop it?”

In response, God seemed to transport me back to first-century Israel, to the hill where he gave his life for me. In my imagination, I saw the scene—the blood-stained cross, the mocking crowd, the guiltless man with stakes through his hands and his feet.

Unthinkable cruelty on display.

Unfathomable love in the Man’s eyes.

And there I was, holding my own pain at the foot of his cross.

I realized he’s not unacquainted with grief. He, too, knows the ache of a wounded heart. Yet he chose the pain. Why?

Because he loves me.

Because he’s good.

Because he was making a way back to the One who is whole. To the God who mends our brokenness and heals our wounds, who seeks reconciliation and weaves redemption into our broken places.

God never told me why he allowed the pain. I guess some questions don’t get answered. Instead, he impressed his love deep within my soul—deeper than the doubts and stronger than human logic. He planted seeds of assurance that would take root and blossom into confidence in the years ahead.

I’m not saying I never question him now. It’s human nature to experience unsettling emotions and accusatory doubts.

Yet the voice of truth and the presence of his Spirit can shift something deep at our core—in that place where we experience love and belonging, where we know and are known by others.

This is the space where God longs to teach us “how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is.” He wants us to “experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully [so we] will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that come from God” (Ephesians 3:18-19 NLT).

Because our God abounds with loyal love.

When God’s glory passed in front of Moses in Exodus 34:6-7, God declared that he’s “filled with unfailing love.” The Hebrew word used here is khesed.1It “combines the ideas of love, generosity, and enduring commitment all into one. Khesed describes an act of promise-keeping loyalty that is motivated by deep, personal care.”

Jesus is the clearest expression of God’s khesed. As God is “filled with unfailing love and faithfulness” (Exodus 34:6), so Jesus, God in the flesh, was “full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). He came to show us what his unfailing love looks like (1 John 4:9).

With deep tenderness and unrelenting faithfulness, God pursues us. He invites us into a relationship with Himself through faith in His Son. And through this friendship, he transforms our own hearts so we can extend his loyal love to others (1 John 4:10-12).

How deeply, how faithfully he loves us!

“The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying, ‘I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness’” (Jeremiah 31:3 NIV).

Personal Reflection: Does my mind believe God loves me? Do my emotions believe God loves me? What circumstances challenge this belief?

Identity Check: Because God’s love is loyal, I am faithfully loved.

Prayer Prompt: Talk to God about any circumstances causing you to doubt his love. Personalize Ephesians 3:18-19, asking him to help you experience how wide and long and high and deep his love really is. Pray that he’ll help you recognize his tender, faithful love and extend that love to others.

1. The Bible Project's Word Study series on the character of God, in a video entitled "God Loves You But What Does That Mean? According to the Bible"