I

How much do you love God today?

How much do you know of all He’s done in you?

These are the things you should learn.

When God arrives on earth,

all He’s done in man and allowed man to see

is so that man will love Him and truly know Him.

That man is able to suffer for God and has come this far

is because of God’s love, and also because of God’s salvation;

moreover, it’s because of the judgment and the work of chastisement

that God’s carried out in man.

If you’re without the judgment, chastisement, and God’s trials,

and if God hasn’t made you suffer,

then you do not truly love God.

The greater God’s work in man, the more man suffers,

the more it shows how meaningful God’s work is,

and the more that man’s heart can truly love God.

How do you learn how to love God?

Without torment, refinement, and painful trials—

and if all God gave man were grace, love, and mercy—

could you reach a point of truly loving God?

II

On one hand, during God’s trials man comes to know his deficiencies;

he sees that he is insignificant, contemptible, and lowly,

that he has nothing and is nothing;

on the other hand, during His trials

God creates different environments for man

that make man more able to experience God’s loveliness.

Although the pain is great, and sometimes insurmountable—

even reaching the level of crushing grief—having experienced it,

man sees how lovely God’s work in him is,

and only upon this foundation is there born in man true love for God.

from The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Only by Experiencing Painful Trials Can You Know the Loveliness of God