I love you too much to not hurt you

"I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." - John 10:10b

God said that. And God is good. He keeps His promises. The question isn't whether God will give us this. The question is whether we want to receive it.

For to walk in God's path, it will take supernatural movement. In other words, God must fulfill His plan for our lives because we can't. It's a dream too big for us. But for Him to do so, He'll lead us to the "valley of dry bones". We will come to a place where it seems that He's not there. A place where we have nothing to hold on to except faith like a mustard seed; trusting only God to bring the breakthrough we so desperately need.

And we cry. We moan. We shout out against Him. The same question repeats over and over again in the life of Christians everywhere: How could such a loving God do this to me? Why would such a loving God do this to me? We can't fit His love with our situation. We moan against the cruelty and injustice of it all. We go as far as to doubt that God actually loves us.

Here is the truth: It is because He loves us that He allows such calamity to befall us. Take note that He didn't cause it, just that He lets it happen. Even then, we can't understand why would He allow it at all. Isn't He our protector? How is allowing bad things (in our eyes) loving us?

Bad things happen because God wants to take us to the next level in His loving plan for us. Times like this, we learn to depend totally on Him to be the answer. Times like this, we seek Him earnestly, discovering something new about Him. Times like this, we see His glory manifested in our lives. We see God do His work and show how little power Satan and this world actually have on us.

He is our best friend. And best friends don't allow you to backslide. Best friends don't allow you to stay where you are either because they know that you can and are meant for much more. Best friends will slap you if it will make you go forward. They do their very best to make sure we stay on the right path and we're doing the right thing. If it means rebuking us, they'll do it because they care that deeply for us.

He is our Father in Heaven. Fathers don't sit back and let their child live a lousy life. They push you onward and upwards; grasping all the potential you have to reach the heights you can. They don't allow you to stay "comfortable" because they know there's so much more you can do. They want to you achieve all that you desire and more. They want to make sure you live a life worth something.

And does it involve hard work? Yes. Does it mean sacrifices and tears? Absolutely. Would we be push into a corner, having no other dependence then on God? You can bet on it. For without such push, we would never know the heights which we can reach. The marvellous thing about humans is really we can do anything when God is with us.

But to go higher, we need to first go deeper. Spend more time with God. Talk to Him more. Learn His ways. Discover Him. Allow the Holy Spirit to lead us. In our hurt, in our darkest days, run to Him. Let Him take control. And we will see a breakthrough the likes we would never have seen. We will see our hurt just disappear for good. And we look back and thank Him for delivering us from it. We learn more about Him and we hit the next level in faith. We glorify Him and grow more in love with Him. And at the end of the day, we leave behind a legacy that will uplift many others, for generations to come.

"Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me." - Matthew 16:24