The third part of probing the question Does God Care? is to address the issue of how you can be at peace during severe adversity.
To me, one large component of peace is trusting in God’s tender loving mercy for us. The better I know God, the more I am aware of just how tender his love is for me; how he sees me as a fragile beloved child who needs particular care to avoid being harmed when subjected to the vicissitudes of this life.
Paul, in his famous discourse on love, writes of the relationship God to humanity by talking about the nature of Divine love. Thus, our love for one another should be like God’s love for us: “patient, kind, protective, trustworthy, persevering and unfailing” (1 Corinthians 13:4- 8). These are not what Paul only wished love could be, they are what he knew love to be as God loved him. Tender, gentle, unbounded, timeless love. Being loved like this leads to gratitude, trust, and reciprocal love for the One who loves you. All this causes you to be able to be at peace because you are convinced of the soon coming reality when Love will rule over everything forever.
For Paul, and for me, in our trials this is where peace infuses me, the foundation of which is the very real experience of being the object of love from a God who knows me better than I know myself (Psalm 139); who has known and loved me with an “everlasting love” (Jeremiah 31:3) and who has drawn me to him with “unfailing kindness” (Jeremiah 31:3); who “holds me to his cheek”( Hosea 11:4) and “bends down to feed me;” Hosea (11:4); whose “steadfast love for me never ceases”(Lamentations (3:22); and whose “mercies never come to an end” (Lamentations 3:22); who “delights” in showering those mercies on me (Micah 7:18); who “knows my frame is frail” (Psalm 103:14); and that I “came from dust” (Psalm 103:14); and must be treated with the utmost tenderheartedness and spoken to with a “gentle quiet voice” (1 Kings 19:13). All of this “patient, kind, protective, trustworthy, persevering and unfailing” love (1 Corinthians 13:4- 8) keeps me at peace even when contending with overwhelming grief or health problems. God’s unfailing love has not vanished. His promises for our welfare have not failed to be true.His character has not changed. Yes, God does care.
