Why Does God Hate Me? - Our Father's House Soup Kitchen

The Depth of God’s Love and Grace

Contrary to what most people believe, God’s love is not based on a reward and punishment system. Rather, it comes with His grace.

Grace is defined as the free and unmerited favor of God. Meaning, it is heartily given. You don’t have to do anything to earn it. You will receive it whether you want to or not and whether you believe you deserve it or not. It is God’s gift to all of mankind.

God loves you. No matter who you are, where you came from, or what you did. He loves every one of us regardless of our gender, skin color, race, or economic status.

If you don’t believe me, just scan a few pages of the bible. The whole book is filled with stories and examples of the universality of God’s grace.

One such example is when Jesus talked to that Samaritan woman by the well. Another is the story of Mary Magdalene. She was regarded as a sinful woman by the people around her. Yet she became one of Jesus’ greatest disciples. The apostle Matthew was a tax collector who lined his pockets with the people’s money. Even King David was an adulterer. Yet God made great people out of them because He loved them despite their faults.

Why Do People Have to Suffer?

There is a myriad of reasons why people suffer. It could be because they lost a loved one, stuck in toxic relationships, health issues, financial issues, and so much more.

But if God loves us, why would he allow such sufferings?

The answer can be found in this bible verse:

We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that 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

With each trial, our characters are tested. We develop tolerance to sufferings and fortitude to pain. We become stronger as do our faith in Him.

For it is in our darkest times that God’s light becomes our guiding beacon. When we have nothing, he gives us hope. When the world turns its back at us, he is there for us. With each suffering, we grow closer to God.

Take for example the story of Joseph, one of the most interesting characters in the bible. As a child, he was betrayed by his brothers and was sold into slavery. While being held as a slave, he was sent to prison because of a false accusation. But in the end, he became instrumental in the prevention of a famine in the land where he was sold as a slave. He even helped his brothers who had been hit hard by the famine.

This is how God expresses his love. He won’t make your path easy. Rather, he will make your journey as difficult as it could get because it is only through such that we become stronger.

So, you see? The sufferings we go through is not a punishment. It’s not a sign that God hates us. Rather, it’s a reminder of how much he loves us.