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For the sake of space, these are just three of many references in Scripture about the reality of God's love.  It's easy to make the mistake of looking at these passages as distant and theoretical, but they are not.  God's love is just as literal and tangible as a mother's love for her newborn baby.  That's truly the way God loves you.  What sane mother can deliberately hurt her newborn baby?  No more can God maliciously or thoughtless hurt you.

One thing that can stand in the way of our understanding of this is a misunderstanding of God's discipline, too.  We might say, "But, the Word also says God chastens his children and it is grievous."  (Hebrews12:5-11)  However, even God's chastening isn't mean or vengeful.  In fact, the pain of the circumstances IS His discipline -- not done "to" us, simply a natural byproduct of the situation.  Discipline does not mean punishment!  Discipline is simply training.  It is that function whereby we learn to be more careful not to touch the hot pan because we have experienced being burned! 

Another critical characteristic of God that applies to your situation is the fact that God is a Redeemer.  Not only does He redeem our eternal souls He redeems our lives, our circumstances, etc.  This is a basic part of His character, not one separate function limited only to salvation.

Genesis 50:20
But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.

Romans 8:28
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

The truth is that God has a redemptive plan for your circumstances.  A divorce doesn't "ruin" you in the eyes of God.  You are not less for being abandoned.  God hasn't put you on a shelf and turned away.  In fact, this is what He specifically says about your situation:

Isaiah 54:4-6
Fear not; for thou shalt not be ashamed: neither be thou confounded; for thou shalt not be put to shame: for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more.

For thy Maker is thine husband; the LORD of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called.

For the LORD hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when thou wast refused, saith thy God.

Those who have been abandoned have a special place in God's heart.  This is shown time and again in God's Word.  You are not the exception!  You are dear to Him and He has a beautiful plan for you (Ecclesiastes 3:11a).  He WILL work your circumstances together for good (Romans 8:28) if you love Him and seek His way of accomplishing it.

The Word is a treasure chest of examples of how God does this very thing.  When we read the stories of the people in the Word we tend to see the end of the story first, so to speak, and forget that real people experienced these things over a period of time.  These real people had real feelings about their experiences -- they didn't know what the end of the story was going to be!  Consider these:

Job -- he lost everything - his children, his wealth and his health.  During all the time he sat in mourning he didn't know that God was going to doubly bless him in the end.  He only knew what had already happened.  It looked like God had turned on him and deliberately hurt him.

Joseph -- he was hurt and rejected by his family, separated from the father he loved, forced into a demeaning, painful life of slavery.  When he did his best, he was again unjustly betrayed and sent to prison.  And remember this wasn't a prison like we know.  This was a dark, stinking hole with no amenities!  When he still did his best, he was forgotten.  During all these years of the worst trials the only "hope" he had was a couple of childish dreams. 

Esther -- as an innocent Jewish virgin, she was forced into the harem of a pagan king.  How could she reconcile such debasement?  We don't think of that perspective, but this was not an honor for Esther!  Yet the Word says that this was God's plan for her life for a very specific, and honorable, reason (Esther 4:14).

Abigail -- was given to a violent man to be his wife (I Sam. 15:3).  We only see a tiny piece of her story recorded in Scripture and we don't realize that she lived with this violent and angry man for some time before the events that were actually recorded in the Word.  What was it like for her for all that time?  Ultimately, she was forced to defy her husband to save the lives of others.  What do you think she felt when she went back to Nabal and confessed to him what she had done?  She didn't know that God was about to strike her husband dead.  She bore the brunt of his anger again, perhaps she was beaten (and not for the first time) -- it's very likely.

In every life, God had a redemptive plan that these people could not see as they walked in painful places, often for years.  God has a redemptive plan for your life, and for the lives of your children, as well.  The only condition on that redemptive plan is that you seek Him and His way.  If you hold Him at arms' length and hide from Him in your hurt you cannot and will not know His healing.

So, how can you seek Him and His way and walk in His healing?  I'm going to address this question in a third section -- How to appropriate God's healing.

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