One of the easiest ways to understand who God is, is through His attributes. Not only do they describe who He is, but how He works. We are all familiar with the attributes we hear often, such as: God is omnipotent (all-powerful), omniscient (all-knowing), and omnipresent (ever-present, meaning, that there is no place to which God’s power and presence do not extend).

There are other attributes we are familiar with that we hear people talk about all the time. They are love, grace, mercy, long-suffering, kind…and the list goes on. You get the point. But I believe we fall into a trap, where we can unconsciously limit God by a wrong understanding of His attributes, and more specifically, how they apply.

Let’s take the most common one we are used to hearing: love. God is love. This is one we hear over and over. There is no shortage of the declaration that God is love…that God loves you and has a plan for your life…for God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son. But there is a subtle nuance here in how we treat God’s love. Let me explain.
God doesn’t love, let that sink in for a moment…

God doesn’t love. God is love. Semantics? Maybe. But such minor deviance of verbiage can change your complete outlook on God. Let me make this personal so you can catch my drift. If I say, “Miguel loves,” I am making a statement that I am ‘loving’. Since love is a verb, when I love, I am putting action into motion. I am striving to make something happen. It’s something I am choosing to do…and if you’re keen, you’ll see the problem in the last statement I made. If I say, “I love” it means I chose to do it. That means love is a choice. I made the choice to love, but equally, I have the choice not to love. If that is true, then my love is conditional, and for the most part, as we humans tend to do, actions or lack thereof, determine which way this choice falls. If I approve of how you treat me, I will love you. If I don’t approve, well…I’m packing up and taking my love elsewhere.

That is why I always say, God does not love, God is love. God’s love is unconditional. He can’t help but to love, and everything He does, is done out of love. Everything. If we don’t truly know God, this truth becomes problematic. You see, no matter what we go through, even tough times, it’s because God loves us, and wants the best for us. In these difficult times, He is steering us in the right direction. Those hard times should cause us to lean on God, and learn from them, and allow ourselves to be broken. Nobody likes to suffer; nobody wants to suffer. But suffering is a normal part of the Christian life. Many have written books on the topic of suffering, and it’s the one area atheists use in their argument for God’s existence: if God is love, why does He allow suffering?

The greatest revelation of faith we can have, is to trust God in the midst of suffering. There is no clearer Bible verse that speaks on this than Job 13:15, though He slay me, yet will I trust Him. If anybody understood unfair suffering, it was Job. We must understand that even in our darkest times, God loves us with an infinite love that we cannot fathom, and that in it, He is in control.

In the midst of your trials, put your faith in God. Cast your cares on Him and go to Him, you who labor and are heavy laden, and He will give you rest.