I

Just how much do you love God today? Just how much do you know of all that God has done in you? These are the lessons you should learn. When God arrives on earth, all that He has 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 come this far is, in one regard, because of God's love, and in another regard, because of God's salvation; even more so, it's because of the judgment and the work of chastisement that God has carried out in man. If you are without the judgment, chastisement, and trials of God, and if God has not made you suffer, you will not truly love God.

II

The greater God's work in man, and the greater man's suffering, the more it demonstrates how meaningful God's work is, and the more man's heart is able to truly love God. How is the lesson of loving God attained? Without suffering and refinement, without painful trials—and if, furthermore, all that God gave man were grace, lovingkindness, and mercy—would you be able to reach a point of truly loving God?

III

On one hand, during God's trials man comes to know his deficiencies and to see that he is insignificant, contemptible, and lowly, that he has nothing and is nothing; on the other hand, during the trials God sets up some environments for man so that within them, man can better 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 the work of God 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