It may seem a strange thing to say, but I say it after considerable thought, and some years of experience in talking to people of all kinds, that there is hardly anything so little understood by Christians generally as the love of God
When I say “the love of God,” I do not mean His love to the world, His love for those who have sinned against Him with hard hearts and a high hand. That love is beyond comprehension—too great, too utterly stupendous for mere words to set forth. I refer rather to that special love which God has to us His children, the Father’s love to those who belong to His dear Son.
Ask the average Christian how he knows that God loves him? “Well, God has been very good to me: He has brought me through many a trial, and though I have had many ups and downs, yet here I am today, still trusting and following.”
Perhaps some reader of these lines is rather astonished that one should regard such a reply as anything but very right and good. Well, we do not find fault with it; we thank God for all the causes He gives us to speak of His abundant delivering mercies in times of a trial, and of His abundant goodness and constant care. But I ask, what about those who have not been delivered in the hour of their trouble?
A Christian, who intended to go from Europe to America by the ill-fated Titanic, but prevented by some unforeseen event, took it as a great proof of God’s love that He allowed that event to hinder him from taking that vessel. But what about the Christians who were not thus providentially hindered, who did take that vessel, and who went down with her in mid-ocean? Were not they equally the object of God’s love?
God has mercifully and providentially intervened in times of persecution and distress on behalf of one another of His poor troubled people. The readers of such a book as “A Thousand Miles of Miracle,” will be at no loss to quote instances of this. On the other hand, numbers were not delivered; no “miracle” of providential mercy was wrought on their behalf. They were left to be cruelly slaughtered by their savage persecutors. Did not God love them as much as those that He was pleased to succor and deliver?
The mercies which we enjoy every day, and which we are accustomed sometimes to speak of as “our common mercies,” were often denied to the Apostle Paul. He knew what it was like to lack food and clothing, to have no roof over his head, and to go from day to day in danger of his life (1Co 4:11). Did not God love Paul?
Let me go further. Let me speak for a moment of Him who came from eternal riches to be poor from love for us. He was acquainted with grief (Isa 53:3); worse off than the foxes with their forest lairs and the birds with their roosting-places. He had nowhere to lay His head (Mat 8:20). Others could go to their homes, while He spent the night on the lone mountain side. Mercies which you and I take as matters of course were withheld from Him. Why? Was He not ever the worthy subject of His Father’s infinite and everlasting love? Aye that He was. Then why the poverty, suffering and grief during His lifetime on earth, when it was no question of making atonement?
Mark the answer: Because the Father’s love does not express itself in the form of earthly and temporal mercies, or at least, is not to be measured by them, though He may give us many , and we may rightly take them all from His gracious, loving hand. God is good to all creatures. He bestows His mercies on the unconverted as well as upon those who belong to His Beloved.
There is a well-known story of Charles Spurgeon’s visit to a Christian farmer. I was relating it to a God-fearing widow by whose fireside I was sitting. She had been passing through sore and bitter trial, and the enemy had taken advantage of this to sow in her heart the seeds of distrust and doubt. She felt that God had forgotten her; that at all events, His love was not such a reality towards her as towards others.
So I told her of Spurgeon’s visit to the farmer, and of his inquiry when he notices that in the place of the usual bird, fish or arrow, a text “God is Love,” had been placed upon the old barn as a weathervane. “Do you mean to say by that,” he asked, “that God’s love is as changeable as the wind?” “Nay, nay,” replied the farmer, “my meaning is that God Is Love, whichever the wind blows!”
This is the lesson we need to lay at heart. We must in no wise measure God’s love by circumstances. The gentle breeze from the south may blow upon us, bringing ease and prosperity; or the biting blasts may sweep down from the frozen north, bringing trials, grief, suffering and disappointment. But nothing changes the love of God. The grand truth is that He loves us as He loves His Son. Wonderful words, and they are true; for read the precious words for yourself in John 17:23. It is the Son of God, our Lord Jesus who says: “Thou … hast loved them, as Thou hast loved Me!”
Lying before me on a table is a picture of a small hotel. Stretched across the full width of the building, above the door, is a long board bearing these words: “Free Board Every Day The Sun Doesn’t Shine.” If an unwary traveler should enter the hotel on some gloomy day and demand a meal, free of charge, on the strength of this inscription, he would of course, be blandly asked by the proprietor, “Why, sir, do you imagine that the sun has ceased to shine? It may be gloomy here, but the sun is shining in all its glorious brightness!”
And so with us. We might make the most extravagant promises for the day upon which the sun of God’s love does not shine. For such a day will never be, in winter as in summer, on dark days as in bright ones, for the Father’s love to us abides in its infinite greatness, because His love to His Son ever remains the same.
—Harold Primrose Barker (1869-1952)
MJS daily devotional for June 23, 2025
“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God” (Phil. 4:6).
“Ignorance insures insecurity; scriptural knowledge secures strength. “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” (2 Tim. 1:7).
“In mechanics, wobbling is weakness. Power issues from God’s restfulness. Are we resting in the Lord? Can we wait patiently for Him to act? Anxiety reduces spiritual energy. Lack of rest of heart is one of the most serious hindrances to Christians.
“Fret of soul when wronged, or fuss over financial or other concerns, is a depletion of power, a dissipation of energy. From the rock basis of rest in Him we can put forth the whole of our energies. Perfect peace is our promised portion.
“Martha gets instruction; we all get that, for our Lord neglects none of us; but she did not get His company; company is what gives rest to the heart.
“Nothing can separate the believer from the love of God, and under no circumstances whatever can he come under the infliction of wrath from God. He may have to correct His saints for their sins, and where there has been no failure He may chasten (child train) them for their profit, that they may become partakers of His holiness; but all this is in love, not in wrath. Every action of God toward His saints is in grace and blessing; it is ever the outcome of His love.”
—Miles J Stanford
“And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ.” Jhttp://www.abideabove.com/hungry-heart/esus” (Phil. 4:7)
When I say “the love of God,” I do not mean His love to the world, His love for those who have sinned against Him with hard hearts and a high hand. That love is beyond comprehension—too great, too utterly stupendous for mere words to set forth. I refer rather to that special love which God has to us His children, the Father’s love to those who belong to His dear Son.
Ask the average Christian how he knows that God loves him? “Well, God has been very good to me: He has brought me through many a trial, and though I have had many ups and downs, yet here I am today, still trusting and following.”
Perhaps some reader of these lines is rather astonished that one should regard such a reply as anything but very right and good. Well, we do not find fault with it; we thank God for all the causes He gives us to speak of His abundant delivering mercies in times of a trial, and of His abundant goodness and constant care. But I ask, what about those who have not been delivered in the hour of their trouble?
A Christian, who intended to go from Europe to America by the ill-fated Titanic, but prevented by some unforeseen event, took it as a great proof of God’s love that He allowed that event to hinder him from taking that vessel. But what about the Christians who were not thus providentially hindered, who did take that vessel, and who went down with her in mid-ocean? Were not they equally the object of God’s love?
God has mercifully and providentially intervened in times of persecution and distress on behalf of one another of His poor troubled people. The readers of such a book as “A Thousand Miles of Miracle,” will be at no loss to quote instances of this. On the other hand, numbers were not delivered; no “miracle” of providential mercy was wrought on their behalf. They were left to be cruelly slaughtered by their savage persecutors. Did not God love them as much as those that He was pleased to succor and deliver?
The mercies which we enjoy every day, and which we are accustomed sometimes to speak of as “our common mercies,” were often denied to the Apostle Paul. He knew what it was like to lack food and clothing, to have no roof over his head, and to go from day to day in danger of his life (1Co 4:11). Did not God love Paul?
Let me go further. Let me speak for a moment of Him who came from eternal riches to be poor from love for us. He was acquainted with grief (Isa 53:3); worse off than the foxes with their forest lairs and the birds with their roosting-places. He had nowhere to lay His head (Mat 8:20). Others could go to their homes, while He spent the night on the lone mountain side. Mercies which you and I take as matters of course were withheld from Him. Why? Was He not ever the worthy subject of His Father’s infinite and everlasting love? Aye that He was. Then why the poverty, suffering and grief during His lifetime on earth, when it was no question of making atonement?
Mark the answer: Because the Father’s love does not express itself in the form of earthly and temporal mercies, or at least, is not to be measured by them, though He may give us many , and we may rightly take them all from His gracious, loving hand. God is good to all creatures. He bestows His mercies on the unconverted as well as upon those who belong to His Beloved.
There is a well-known story of Charles Spurgeon’s visit to a Christian farmer. I was relating it to a God-fearing widow by whose fireside I was sitting. She had been passing through sore and bitter trial, and the enemy had taken advantage of this to sow in her heart the seeds of distrust and doubt. She felt that God had forgotten her; that at all events, His love was not such a reality towards her as towards others.
So I told her of Spurgeon’s visit to the farmer, and of his inquiry when he notices that in the place of the usual bird, fish or arrow, a text “God is Love,” had been placed upon the old barn as a weathervane. “Do you mean to say by that,” he asked, “that God’s love is as changeable as the wind?” “Nay, nay,” replied the farmer, “my meaning is that God Is Love, whichever the wind blows!”
This is the lesson we need to lay at heart. We must in no wise measure God’s love by circumstances. The gentle breeze from the south may blow upon us, bringing ease and prosperity; or the biting blasts may sweep down from the frozen north, bringing trials, grief, suffering and disappointment. But nothing changes the love of God. The grand truth is that He loves us as He loves His Son. Wonderful words, and they are true; for read the precious words for yourself in John 17:23. It is the Son of God, our Lord Jesus who says: “Thou … hast loved them, as Thou hast loved Me!”
Lying before me on a table is a picture of a small hotel. Stretched across the full width of the building, above the door, is a long board bearing these words: “Free Board Every Day The Sun Doesn’t Shine.” If an unwary traveler should enter the hotel on some gloomy day and demand a meal, free of charge, on the strength of this inscription, he would of course, be blandly asked by the proprietor, “Why, sir, do you imagine that the sun has ceased to shine? It may be gloomy here, but the sun is shining in all its glorious brightness!”
And so with us. We might make the most extravagant promises for the day upon which the sun of God’s love does not shine. For such a day will never be, in winter as in summer, on dark days as in bright ones, for the Father’s love to us abides in its infinite greatness, because His love to His Son ever remains the same.
—Harold Primrose Barker (1869-1952)
MJS daily devotional for June 23, 2025
“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God” (Phil. 4:6).
“Ignorance insures insecurity; scriptural knowledge secures strength. “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” (2 Tim. 1:7).
“In mechanics, wobbling is weakness. Power issues from God’s restfulness. Are we resting in the Lord? Can we wait patiently for Him to act? Anxiety reduces spiritual energy. Lack of rest of heart is one of the most serious hindrances to Christians.
“Fret of soul when wronged, or fuss over financial or other concerns, is a depletion of power, a dissipation of energy. From the rock basis of rest in Him we can put forth the whole of our energies. Perfect peace is our promised portion.
“Martha gets instruction; we all get that, for our Lord neglects none of us; but she did not get His company; company is what gives rest to the heart.
“Nothing can separate the believer from the love of God, and under no circumstances whatever can he come under the infliction of wrath from God. He may have to correct His saints for their sins, and where there has been no failure He may chasten (child train) them for their profit, that they may become partakers of His holiness; but all this is in love, not in wrath. Every action of God toward His saints is in grace and blessing; it is ever the outcome of His love.”
—Miles J Stanford
“And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ.” Jhttp://www.abideabove.com/hungry-heart/esus” (Phil. 4:7)
