Overcoming: Devotions from Time of GraceSample

God's Love During Times of Loss

Have you ever noticed how stress can erode relationships? Marriages, for example, sometimes fray and even break up under the pressure of having to care for a profoundly disabled child or during a prolonged financial drought or during a military separation.

Personal stress can also erode a believer's confidence in God's love. "I thought he liked me? Or maybe not--is this a punishment for my past misdeeds?"

But here's one thing you don't ever have to doubt. Your hardships are not punishments. God has already done all the punishing he needs to do, and it was done on the back of his Son, Jesus, on the cross of Calvary. God's forgiveness is not like ours--when he forgives, it is total, unconditional, and permanent.

That means that in your time of stress, not only is he not angry with you, he is planning the sweet things he is going to do to bring you some relief! St. Paul promises you, "He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all--how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?" (Romans 8:32). Wow.