Loving Through It All

It’s easy to love when the sun shines warm, when life hums along with rhythm and grace, when our hearts beat steady in time with joy. But what about when the storms come? When the phone call brings unwelcome news, when relationships unravel, when grief knocks at the door and refuses to leave? The world tells us that love is easy in the good times, but how are we to love in the midst of pain, disappointment, or even betrayal?

The Word of God doesn’t shy away from these questions. The scriptures are filled with stories of imperfect people learning to love through the highs and lows, through fire and storm, through silence and waiting. There is a thread woven through every page of the Bible: a call to love, not just when it’s easy, but when it feels impossible.

The Steadfast Love of God

We begin by remembering the one constant in every season: the steadfast love of God. Psalm 136 repeats the refrain, “His love endures forever.” Not for a moment or a day, not for just the seasons of abundance and light, but forever. This is the love that God offers us—unwavering, unshakable, and unconditional. It is the love that carried the Israelites through the wilderness, the love that sustained David in the caves, and the love that bore the weight of the cross.

In John 13:34-35, Jesus commands us to love one another as He has loved us. This is no small task. To love as He loves means to lay down our lives, to give even when it costs us something, to see the person in front of us—not just through our eyes, but through His.

Love in the Face of Offense

Perhaps one of the hardest places to love is when we’ve been hurt. The world would tell us to guard our hearts, to hold tight to offense, but Jesus offers a radical alternative. In Matthew 5:44, He tells us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. This isn’t a passive love; it’s active, intentional, and deeply sacrificial. It’s a love that refuses to keep records of wrongs (1 Corinthians 13:5), a love that chooses forgiveness even when our flesh demands justice.

This kind of love isn’t something we muster up on our own. It comes from abiding in Christ. The more we dwell in His presence, the more we are filled with His Spirit, and the more we are able to love beyond our human capacity. When we keep our eyes on Jesus, we learn what it means to love in the face of offense.

Love in the Midst of Suffering

It’s easy to love when everything is going well, but what about when life falls apart? The scriptures offer us stories of people who learned to love in the furnace of suffering. Job, who lost everything, still praised God. Paul, who was beaten and imprisoned, continued to serve and love the church. Jesus, on the cross, in the height of His suffering, prayed for His enemies.

Romans 5:3-5 reminds us that suffering produces perseverance, character, and hope, and hope does not disappoint because God has poured out His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. In suffering, love is purified, stripped of all pretense and self-interest. We learn to love without expecting anything in return, to give even when it feels like we have nothing left.

Love in the Waiting

Waiting can feel like one of the most challenging times to love. When prayers seem unanswered, when God feels distant, when life is on pause—we wonder how we can keep loving in the silence. Yet, the Bible is full of stories of waiting, where love grows in the unseen places. Abraham waited for the promise of a son, Hannah waited for Samuel, and the world waited for the Messiah.

In the waiting, we are invited to trust the One who holds all things together. Isaiah 40:31 says, “But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” Loving in the waiting means choosing to believe that God is working, even when we can’t see it. It means choosing to serve, to show kindness, to love others even when our own hearts feel heavy with longing.

A Love That Never Fails

In every circumstance, we are reminded that love is not dependent on our circumstances but on God’s faithfulness. The call to love, through joy and pain, through success and failure, through waiting and suffering, is a reflection of the love we have first received from Christ.

1 Corinthians 13 tells us that love never fails. This isn’t a naive love that ignores the reality of suffering or the brokenness of the world. It’s a love that stands firm, that perseveres, that endures. It’s the kind of love that led Jesus to the cross, that sustains us in our darkest nights, and that calls us to love others with the same kind of grace.

So we keep loving, through every storm, through every trial, because we are held by the One whose love endures forever. It’s in this steadfast love that we find our strength, our purpose, and our hope. And in every circumstance, we are reminded that we love because He first loved us (1 John 4:19).