I don’t believe it was an accident that God proclaimed his love for his Son right before the Spirit led him through 40 days of suffering.
It is important to lavish our love on the Father. But there’s a bigger picture. It’s when we fully understand the love of God for us that our love for him comes out of our heart (see The Prayer that Changes Everything). And when we enter into the dark valleys, knowing God’s love for us is essential.
Can you imagine going into the dark night of the soul without being fully assured of God’s love for you personally? It is there when it is not our will that is tested, but our trust in His love. If we don’t trust in His love, those trials can very easily turn us sour. Where are you God in my suffering? Don’t you care? You’re not a good God. If you are why aren’t you doing something about my situation? You do miracles for others, why not me? Why are you allowing me to suffer like this? Are you not powerful enough to do something about it? Do you love everybody else but I am your leftover?
Honesty in our suffering is something that David showed us was not sinful in itself. But if you look at most of the psalms even in his honesty he always ended with his trust in God (see Psalm 13 for a good example).
Trials, suffering and when the miraculous deliverance doesn’t happen…they don’t test our will so much as our rootedness in His love. Life doesn’t always give us answers. God doesn’t always give us answers. But suffering happens. Bad suffering that doesn’t always come with miraculous deliverance. Being grounded in His love though makes our suffering something that can be navigated.
Because He loves us.
