Encouraged Love, Given Freely

by Rose Amer

Rose and her husband pastor a church in Niagara Falls and are leading their congregation in the process of becoming part of the Canadian Baptist family of churches. GROWING UP AS A MUSLIM, love often meant doing some action or some work for the person you loved so they could be happy with you. In the same way, God’s love meant that I performed my religious duties, hoping to please Allah and thus enter into his heaven one day.

Since I was a little girl I’d been told that it would be extremely difficult for a woman to enter heaven because when the prophet Mohammed had visited heaven, he had not seen any woman there.

There was no assurance of eternal life for me, no hope of seeing God face to face. I was lost in the endless chores and duties that I had to do to earn my place in heaven, however difficult that would be. On the outside I was a pious, legalistic and devout Muslim but on the inside I was yearning and longing to find my place on this earth and in heaven.

The concept of marriage and finding love in marriage scared me. I could not accept my fate that I would have to be content with whatever leftover love I would get from the man I married, whether as first, second, third or fourth wife. I loved Allah with my whole heart but I was not willing to obey his commandment to accept my lot in life—to be a wife of a man who would also love many other women besides me. As a teenager I quietly vowed that I would never be okay with this. I wanted to have the full, whole love of the man I would one day marry and I wanted to have the full love, the whole love of God without working so hard to earn it. I wanted this but I did not know to do this until I met Jesus Christ.

When I first heard the term God is love, I was confused. Associating a human adjective with God seemed like blasphemy. Even though the term made my heart jump with joy I was also scared. “What if this Jesus is not God?” I thought constantly.

Even with these doubts though, I started learning about Him. My pastors explained the God of the Bible to me. And after spending countless hours reading, studying and scouring the Bible, I realized that the love for which I had been searching my whole life I would only ever find in one person— Jesus Christ. I knew full well that I had to go through intense suffering in order to accept the love He offered me freely. The cost, oh the cost was so high—beatings from my own family; imprisonment in my father’s house; escaping from his home, knowing I’d never see my biological family again; never being able to return to my brith country. Yet Jesus’ cross has taught me that love comes with sacrifice. Anything less is an empty emotion.

Today, after 24 years of walking with Him and talking to Him daily, I say with certainty that I found my true love in Jesus Christ. The term God is love now gives me this assurance . . . that one day I will see my Beloved face to face. God’s Son has given me a new meaning and a new definition of love that no p When Rose met Amer she never thought she’d marry him. Upon discovering Amer was a pastor’s son she began to trust him and shared with him her desire to learn more about Jesus. They’ve been married for 23 years.

Photo credit: Rose Amer

earthly relationship will ever give. Yes, I experience hardships, sufferings and troubles but I never experience them alone. He walks by my side. And not once has He demanded that I perform a meaningless ritual or duty.

“Jesus paid it all. All to Him I owe.” 