DOES GOD REALLY LOVE ME? HOW CAN WE KNOW HIS LOVE?
We can all agree, life is hard and we are faced with times when we feel down, alone and unloved. Challenges in living each day ‘to the best of our ability’ can overcome and smother us. We wonder, does anyone understand? Is it even worth the effort to keep going? Does God care what happens to me at this point? Does he really love me?
THROUGH HIS PLAN AND PROVISIONS
Life’s sharp left turns and even our daily circumstances can cause us to withdraw and feel burdened. Losing a child, a debilitating illness, joblessness, broken relationships are some major reasons that can make us feel outcast. Yet our Father who cares and never stops loving us, wants his children to realize breakthrough and healing.
God knows all about us. He created us in our mother’s womb and has the best plan already laid out for us (Ephesians 2:10). He wants to adopt us, teach us, make us part of his heavenly family through Jesus Christ. This gives him great pleasure (Ephesians 1:4,5). His love for us knows no bounds, it overrides any anger or disappointment he may have for our actions or behavior. He says, “I am the one who looks after you and cares for you. I am like a tree that is always green, giving my fruit to you all through the year” (Hosea 14:8).
In the Bible, we are reminded again and again of God’s love, in poetic and remarkable messages:
- “Your unfailing love, O LORD, is as vast as the heavens; your faithfulness reaches beyond the clouds… How precious is your unfailing love, O God! All humanity finds shelter in the shadow of your wings” (Psalm 36:5, 7).
- “The LORD will work out his plans for my life – for your faithful love, O LORD, endures forever. Don’t abandon me, for you made me” (Psalm 133:8).
- “I will give glory to your name forever, for your love for me is very great. You have rescued me from the depts of death!” (Psalm 86:12-13).
- “Let them boast in this alone: that they truly know me and understand that I am the LORD who is just and righteous, whose love is unfailing, and that I delight in these things” (Jeremiah 9:23-34).
“Nothing teaches us about the preciousness of the Creator as much as when we learn the emptiness of everything else” (Charles H. Spurgeon).
THROUGH HIS REDEMPTION
To fully comprehend the love that God has for each of us, we need to reflect on who he is. God is love (1 John 4:8), which is the greatest of his attributes. Love came down from heaven, as God’s only beloved Son, to rescue us from the grip of death and eternal separation from God. Jesus is the exact representation and form of God, the display of ‘God is love’ to a world in trouble and despair. Through Jesus Christ, God has given us an eternal life, an eternal life founded by his eternal love.
“This is real love. It is not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sin” (1 John 4:10).
Nothing in the universe is outside God’s control; therefore, nothing can separate us from his eternal love (The Ryrie Study Bible, p.1714). “I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39).
THROUGH THE HOLY SPIRIT
After Jesus’ ascension to heaven, he asked God to send us a comforter, a helper, in the person of the Holy Spirit (John 14:16). As we make our journey through life in this fallen world, we can rely on the Holy Spirit for teaching and guidance (John 14:26). If we commune with God in prayer and petition (Philippians 4:6) we can put aside our anxiety in full knowledge that God’s love is without limit. We’re in the world but not of the world (John 15:19; 17:16) and God is with us.
According to Romans 5:5, we see that God has given us his Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love. Something a lot of us do not fully understand is that the Spirit of God lives within our hearts the moment we believe, the moment we say ‘Yes’ to Jesus. His sacrificial death paid the penalty for all our sins and has now put us in right relationship with God our Father. Now the Holy Spirit ‘conduit’ receives and channels ALL the love God graciously gives, to those who call upon Jesus’s name. Our feelings and emotions can come and go, but it is the love of Christ that should hold and grip us, conquering our natural emotions by the mighty power of the Spirit. The awareness of the dwelling of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer is paramount in understanding that “he alone can supply the necessary energy of love for us to go on running well” (T. Austin Sparks).
HOW CAN WE EXPERIENCE GOD’S LOVE?
With the choice to believe that God is for us and not against us (Romans 8:31), that he desires a strong, nurturing relationship with us, we can simply and intentionally talk to him, cry to him, bring to him our cares and our grievances. We can actually sense his presence, his peace, and his love in the quietness of our heart. Prayer is the means by which we connect with God’s heart.
“In prayer, again and again, we discover that the love we are looking for has already been given to us and that we can come to the experience of that love. Prayer is entering into communion with the One who molded our being in our mother’s womb with love and only love. There, in the first love, lies our true self, a self not made of the rejections and acceptances of those with whom we live, but solidly rooted in the One who called us into existence” (Henri Nouwen, p.72).
Since you have read this far, your interest in spiritual things and wanting to know God’s love is piqued. You have some inclination that God is there for you and you want to know more about him. Would you believe God is calling you, choosing you, wanting you to be part of his heavenly family, to know that he loves you with no strings attached? Talk openly to God now and read what he has to say in his word, the Bible. God will draw near to you in profound ways as you draw near to him (James 4:8).
“See how very much our heavenly Father loves us, for he allows us to be called his children, and we really are!” (1 John 3:1).
Sources:
Holy Bible: New Living Translation, 1996.
The Ryrie Study Bible: New American Standard Translation, 1976.
The Only Necessary Thing, by Henri J.M. Nouwen, 1999.