Now that we've talked a bit about God's love maybe we should define it. Here's a definition that I think works. It's basic and fairly simple.
God's love is His affectionate desire for and determined working toward the good of the one He has decided to love.
Let's take that apart.
First, there is the element of affection. God is not an unfeeling robot who just does stuff because it's the right thing to do. He loves because He cares. He has a deep affection for those whom He loves. And that affection is part of His motivation for loving us. So, what He decides to do in order to love us isn't the conclusion to some logic problem. He really cares, and so He loves.
Then, there is effort. God works at loving us. And the point here is that, sadly, we fight Him on this. There are ways that He intends to love us that we resist. He needs to overcome that. So, while this doesn't mean that God breaks a sweat in order to love us - it's not that kind of work - it does mean that He has to persist - and He does.
Third, the goal of His love is the good of the beloved. This goes beyond things that are fleeting. He aims for good that will last. Ultimately, He aims for those whom He loves to become like Jesus, freed from sin and freed to live well.
Fourth, God decides to love. It's not that He is obligated, as if loving us is part of His job description. He loves because of a choice that He makes. And that means that He can choose not to love. Here, consider again God's love for the world - a love that will end.
It's important to note what this definition does not include. There is nothing here about His love making our life nice and easy. Sometimes loving someone will require that you make life harder. So, God does not only use pleasant methods to love us. In fact, sometimes He sends evil to bring about the good that He so desires to see happen in the life of His beloved.
Nailing this down is important because a person can't enjoy God's love as fully as he might if he doesn't understand what it actually is. And that's particularly true when life gets hard.