If we joyfully interpret everything that happens—sickness, death, loss, poverty—as actions of mercy rather than judgement, it will transform the way we live as Christians. We must look to God’s inerrant word to find comfort that he indeed loves us and does good toward us. Scripture says,
- God is the one who helps, therefore we have nothing to fear. (Isaiah 41:13)
- God’s love is displayed and proven when he sent his Son to die for our sins. (1 John 4:10)
- Nothing can separate us from God’s love—absolutely nothing. (Romans 8:35–39)
- God loves us with an everlasting love. (Jeremiah 31:3)
- Jesus loves us with the same love that the Father loves him. (John 15:9)
Jesus, God’s only begotten Son, was a man of sorrows (Isaiah 53:3). And since he loves us, we should expect to suffer in this life just as Christ suffered, because “suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Romans 5:3–5).
But thank God, that even “as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too” (2 Corinthians 1:5). Our ability to interpret God’s actions toward us as good is inevitably tied to our contentment and joy. If we’re unable to see his providence as good, we will never be content, and without contentment, we will never fully know the joy he has for us.
