In two previous articles we were taught that God’s sovereign control over all that takes place in our lives should teach us patience in adversity and thankfulness in prosperity. In this article we want to observe that God’s sovereign control over all things also teaches us “good confidence in our faithful God and Father’s love.” For this reason when believers reflect on God’s dealings with them in their lives, they also experience that God loves them.

God’s Love in Prosperity

It is not difficult to believe that God loves us when things are going well with us. Thus, when a person is asked if things are going well with them, a typical response might be: Great! God has richly blessed me. Thus, they see their prosperity as an indication of God’s favor to them and they want to give thanks to him.

God’s Love in Adversity

It is a little different for one to see God’s love in adversity. That’s why when a believer is asked the same question when things are against them, the response might be: I don’t know what God is trying to tell me; my life is a mess. With that kind of answer we have to encourage  patience on the part of the discouraged brother or sister.

God’s Love Is Ever Present

It is incumbent on a believer to remind such a person that God’s love is constant in our lives because it is an everlasting love. Scripture teaches that “God is love” (1 John 4:7). Therefore, all his works are done in love for the believer in Christ. Since God is at work in our lives, then whatever happens in us is a manifestation of his love to us. As God made clear to Israel: “The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession” (Deut. 7:6). It was because of his love for them that God delivered Israel out of Egypt and from the power of Pharaoh’s hand. And still, even today, whatever happens in our lives is the result of the working of God’s love in us. God is a covenant-keeping God, and therefore, his work in us is due to his faithfulness to the covenant ge made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Believers must seek to recognize God’s love at work in the events of their lives and rest with confidence that “nothing will separate us from this love.”

God’s Love and Confidence for the Future

How can we experience God’s love in times of adversity and prosperity? First of all, we must realize that God’s presence and love may be experienced differently, according to what is happening in our lives. Thus, in prosperity we may experience that God is “the overflowing source of all good” (Belgic Confession, Article 1). For none but God could supply all our needs. So the believer acknowledges God’s working in his life and gives  thanks for the prosperity he enjoys. Second, however, when things go against us we realize that God is still acting in our lives; and we must be  patient, since he controls all that happens in our lives. Patience requires us to wait till God makes clear what his will is for us. Thus, in prosperity or adversity, our eyes are on the Lord. The future is also in God’s hand. So we must continue to look to the Lord and experience his love as he continues to operate in our lives. We must acknowledge God’s love in the future because God loves his own with an everlasting love. As God declared to his people through the prophet Jeremiah: “The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying: ‘I have loved you with an everlasting love’; I have drawn you with lovingkindness. I will build you up again and you will be rebuilt, O Virgin Israel’” (Jer. 31:3–4). Because God’s love for his people is an everlasting love, every act of his toward us is a manifestation of that love. Therefore, in considering God’s dealings with us, we gain renewed confidence in his faithfulness to us and gain assurance “that nothing will separate us from his love” (Heidelberg Catechism , Answer 28).

What a wonderful comfort to belong to such a God whose working in our lives imparts to us rich blessing in adversity, prosperity, and for our future destiny. Little wonder then that the church of our Lord and Savior loves to sing in its worship services:

Praise God, from whom all blessings flow;

Praise him all creatures here below;

Praise him above, ye heavenly host;

Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.

Psalter Hymnal of CRC (1987 edition, 638)

Dr. Harry G. Arnold was a retired minister in the Christian Reformed Church who lived in Portage, MI, and was a member of Grace Christian Reformed Church in Kalamazoo, MI.