Guess How Much I Love You.

“God has not been trying an experiment on my faith or love in order to find out their quality. He knew it already. It was I who didn't.” — C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed

When we face challenges in life, the usual advice we often hear is, "The Lord is testing you. He wants to see how much you love Him." I grew up believing this, thinking that hardships are somehow an opportunity to prove my devotion to God, as if He didn’t already know my heart.

Then one day, while reading A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis, I came across this quote. And it hit me.

Of course, God already knows! He knows my heart, my intentions, the depth of my love. But maybe it was I who don’t.

When Abraham was asked to offer Isaac, the son he loved, did he know from the beginning of his walk with God that his obedience would take him that far? Probably not. But when the moment came, when he was about to give up the very thing he held most dear, it became clear, not to God, but to Abraham himself. I imagine that in that moment, in his heart, Abraham thought, "So this is how much I love the Lord, this is how much I am willing to obey Him."

Until we are placed in a situation where we must walk out our faith and love, we will never truly know the depths of it.

Maybe it’s the same for us. It’s easy to say, "I love You, Lord," but when life brings pain, loss, or uncertainty, how true are the words we confess?

Maybe this is why God allows us to walk through seasons of difficulty—not to test if our love for Him is real, but to reveal it to us. To take our faith from mere words to something tangible. To show us that what we thought was weak is actually stronger than we knew.

Because love and faith aren’t just something we say. It’s something we live by.

So maybe the real question isn’t “Does God know how much I love Him?” because, of course, He does.

Maybe the real question is, “Do I?”