The Truth About God’s Love

Recently, not a lot of things have gone according to plan. My negative covid test was extremely delayed, and I wasn’t able to reunite with my squad at the original time. Then, right before we were supposed to fly to Guatemala, one of my squadmates tested positive for covid. Because of that, the whole squad is quarantining in Georgia for another week, to ensure no one here will be bringing covid to our base and circle of influence in Guatemala.

It’s been a really challenging time for me emotionally, and God and I have been working a lot of things out. Even though it’s been so hard, I’ve been reminded by God, the squad, and myself, of how God’s love is not defined by our difficult circumstances. 

During our team time Thursday night, we each prayed individually over this quarantine time. God showed me some things in two passages of scripture from Romans.

The first is Romans 8:28. “And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.”

Even though these hardships are difficult and not from God, he will still use them for his purposes.

The second passage is Romans 8:35-39. It says (my emphasis added),

“Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? (As the Scriptures say, ‘For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.’). No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.

And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow – not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below – indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

To me this was such a good reminder to not let our circumstances push us away from God, but instead let them push us *to* him instead. Yes, we’ll have to go through hard things in life. But NOTHING can ever separate us from his love. His love for us is not defined by our difficult circumstances or our hard emotions. I’m learning that hardships can be an opportunity for greater intimacy with Him.

On a different note, I’ve been keeping my eyes peeled for little moments of beauty during this time, that remind me of his love. I thought I’d share a few of these sweet moments that God has gifted me in the midst of such emotional turmoil. Bonus points if you can spot the goat 😉

Lastly, we should be officially flying out of the country in about a week! I still need to raise $3,725 in order to be fully-funded to do ministry on the field, and I will need to have that raised by the time we fly out. Please prayerfully consider how you can support me. I will be updating y’all about every week through my blog, and I’m planning to send out a monthly recap newsletter (different than my blog). Let me know if you want to be subscribed to my blog or the newsletter! Again, thank you all so much for the support. I’m incredibly grateful to have made it this far (all glory to God!).