Jesus Loves Me, This I Know
In the heavy weight of ongoing and chronic suffering, it’s easy to doubt God’s love for us. It’s an age-old question, deriving from the Genesis 3 fall with Satan’s hiss, “Did God actually say?”
The Old Testament is filled with honest laments, agony-prayers of His suffering children. In all but one (Psalm 88), they turn around into praise of who God says He is. I’m suffering, “but I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation” (Ps. 13:5 ESV, emphasis added).
I desperately needed these laments and turnarounds as a young mother with eight years of an undiagnosed, systemic, and progressively disabling illness.
Our loving and compassionate Lord “knows our frame” (Ps. 103:14 ESV) He provided song after song to this hurting and frightened mommy who needed to “call to mind” His love for me. Wee Sing Bible Songs played on repeat as our toddler and infant twin daughters grew up playing in a baby-gated playroom with easy access to food and water. I could dip in and out of consciousness on the floor with them and survive with pages of untreatable symptoms…and yet know our Lord was holding us safe in His care. His love songs for those unified with Christ filled the air with turnarounds to Biblical truth into my tears and fears. Our daughters’ singing simple Scriptural songs became His love songs…to me:
Jesus loves me, this I know,
for the Bible tells me so…
Yes, Jesus loves me!
The Bible tells me so.
Jesus Loves Me, This I Know, Warner, A. B., 1859
Lament songs in Scripture often praise God for His love, a defining love unique to only God, a kind we can’t adequately translate from the Hebrew hesed. It’s loving-kindness, steadfast, enduring, unfailing, covenant, loyal, merciful, compassionate, faithful, unconditional, grace-filled, just, righteous, eternal, never-ending, perfect love! We don’t even have words for God’s hesed love, but it encompasses God’s holy essence.
I’m suffering…and loved with everlasting love
Loved with everlasting love,
drawn by grace that love to know,
Spirit sent from Christ above,
thou dost witness it is so…
I am His and He is Mine, Robinson, W., 1890
Turnarounds also flowed from hymns and songs I’d shared as a church musician, playing organ and piano, directing choirs, a daily rhythm of practicing His loving surround-sound to help church congregations sing. Thousands of His love songs toward me in Christ filled my thoughts, His gift to help me endure.
O this full and precious peace
from his presence all divine;
In a love that cannot cease,
I am his and he is mine.
For as we read of His hesed, or love, in the Old Testament laments, we now see it displayed on the cross (Jn. 3:16; Rom. 5:8; 1 Jn. 4:9-10).
What wondrous love is this
that caused the Lord of bliss
to bear the dreadful curse for my soul, for my soul,
to bear the dreadful curse for my soul!
What Wondrous Love is This, anon., p.d.
I’m suffering…and I am His, and He is mine
Beloved in Christ, Jesus is how we know His love still endures for us as we suffer. Because God brought you into a covenantal relationship with Jesus, God’s hesed love for you…is as Your Father.
Taste the goodness of the Lord:
welcomed home to his embrace,
all his love, as blood outpoured,
seals the pardon of his grace.
Can I doubt his love for me,
when I trace that love's design?
By the cross of Calvary
I am his and he is mine.
LIFE-GIVING ENCOURAGEMENT
Are you like me? I still need constant, daily reminders. Especially now that my serious illness and severe pain have worsened again. “Let me hear in the morning of your steadfast love” (Ps. 143:8 ESV).
What song-gift sings to your hurting heart of our salvation in Christ? What’s a song of adoration that you could weakly sing back to our Lord Jesus as you walk through suffering? That’s His “suffering song” of love for you today.
PRAYER
Father, please provide Your “suffering songs” of hesed love to me today. Point me to them as ones to sing to You and to my hurting heart. Give me Your playlist of love, on repeat, to help me endure this pain. In Jesus’ name of love itself, amen.
This devotion is adapted from Near to God: A Devotional Bible Study of God’s Character in Our Suffering.
Lauri A. Hogle, PhD, music therapist, music educator, and church musician, heads Singing Christ’s Hope, a nonprofit ministry found at singchristhope.org. Her words and musical offerings have touched lives across the globe.
Lauri’s Bible study prayer books, including Near to God, Praying God’s Promises Into Suffering, Singing the Gospel to Job, and a children’s book, In the Valleys of God’s Love, are complemented by weekly playlist gifts for suffering Christian women. Her lifelong passion is to glorify God through music, teaching, research, and writing. By God’s gracious blessing, in 35 years of serious illness, her great joy is as wife, mother, and Nana.
You can find and contact Lauri at singchristhope.org.
Are there other women in your life who could benefit from a daily dose of encouragement? Forward this email so they can click on this link to Subscribe to Daily Treasure to be better equipped to walk by faith on the pathway God has marked out for them.
Sharon W. Betters is a mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, pastor’s wife, and cofounder of MARKINC Ministries, where she is the Director of Resource Development. Sharon is the author of several books, including Treasures of Encouragement, Treasures in Darkness, and co-author with Susan Hunt of Aging with Grace. She is the co-host of the Help & Hope podcast and writes Daily Treasure, an online devotional.
Contact Sharon with comments or questions at dailytreasure@markinc.org.