“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28).
Notice the Apostle Paul wrote that “all things work together for good to those who love God.” What does it mean to love God? Love for God is an abiding condition of the heart created by God’s grace and Holy Spirit. The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 5:5: “…because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” So, first of all, love for God is something that God must work in us by His grace. We read in 1 John 4:19 that we love God because He first loved us. Love for God, in its essence, is not a love for God because of all that He gives, but love for God, first and foremost, is love for all that He is, love for Him, love for His person, love for His character, love for His perfections. It’s adoration for God as God. We see this love expressed in Psalm 63:1: “O God, You are my God; early will I seek You; My soul thirsts for You; My flesh longs for You in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water.”
You see, love for God is esteem, reverence, and worship of God for who He is … the righteous, holy, just, loving, merciful, sovereign, omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient God of the universe who has mercy on whom He will have mercy and hardens whom He hardens. To love God is to love Him for who He is and not simply for what He gives. Those who love God say with Job, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him”, and their confession agrees completely with the words of Habakkuk 3:17-18: “Though the fig tree may not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines; though the labor of the olive may fail, and the fields yield no food; though the flock may be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls; yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.”
What about you? Do you love God in the depths of your soul for who He is or only for what He gives? There are many people in churches all across the land who profess that they’re Christians, but as soon as God sends trials, sorrow, suffering, or sickness upon them they turn their back on God. You see, these hypocrites want the blessings, but not the God who gives the blessings. To love God is to desire, treasure, adore, and delight in God; to love Him is to be satisfied with Him! When trials, sorrow, suffering, or sickness come upon us we demonstrate our love for God when we sing with the hymn writer: “Let sorrow do its work, come grief or pain; sweet are Thy messengers, sweet their refrain, when they can sing with me: More love, O Christ, to Thee; More love to Thee, more love to Thee!”