Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/5485

5485 Earthly adversity is often a revelation of God's love....

September 13, 1952: Book 60

My love for you is boundless, and yet you often believe to have reason to doubt it.... You often feel abandoned by Me, earthly adversity approaches you with overwhelming force and you know of no way out.... Yet then I only seem to have withdrawn from you in order to be sought by you, because I always want to reveal My love to you anew by helping you. For the adversity is never so great that I cannot remedy it.... I want to reveal My love to you.... because I want to gain your love in return; your faith in Me and My power, your reverence for Me and your obedience are nothing without your love, for this alone allows Me to find My children. And where there is love there is also faith and reverence and obedience, but love is the most powerful thing because it alone makes you happy. I’ll do anything to win your love.... Yet if I were to provide you with the most beautiful earthly life, if I were to give you everything that makes you happy on earth, this would only increase your love for the world but not for Me, Whom you cannot see because your eyes are directed towards the world. This is why I often have to withdraw from you, even if only seemingly, I have to let you fall into worldly abandonment, into a state of hardship and suffering, you have to recognise your own powerlessness and also the lack of love of your fellow human beings in order to then seek Me, to call for Me and then also to recognise My great love for you once I have liberated you from your adversity. Then love will also awaken in you and it will become ever stronger because you will recognise Me as your most faithful friend and brother, the Helper out of all adversity, the Father Who loves His children dearly.... You will not be able to resist My love for ever, yet I cannot force your love in return, therefore I will endeavour to gain it with all patience without ever slackening My love which, after all, created you. And every loving thought of yours increases My love because it is a sure sign that I will soon have won you for eternity. Therefore know that you are never abandoned when you are in earthly trouble, know that I immediately approach you who call for Me, know that I then only want to kindle your love, that I long for your call, for your love, like a father who wants to embrace his child in order to be able to make it happy with his love. Yet love does not want to be one-sided, love in return first makes you happy and I want to receive this from you.... I always long for you, yet you sometimes have to get into difficult situations, for you are in the midst of the world and your desire is still very divided, it is often directed towards earthly things.... and then I sometimes resort to means which are intended to turn you back to Me in order to then emerge again with My love, in order to show you My love again in such a way that you will also be inflamed with love for Me, that you will become and remain Mine forever....

Amen

Translated by Sven Immecke