Does God really love me? This question plagued me for half of my life. Many of us struggle with the idea that we are unloveable because of our experiences in life or things we have done. If that’s you keep reading because I believe when you find the answer to this question, it has the power to change your life.
First of all, I want to start by saying YES. God does love you. Whether you believe it right now or not, it will always be true.
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?… No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
ROMANS 8:35, 37-39
Often when we are in times of distress or turmoil, we begin to doubt that God loves us. We start to ask ourselves, “Why would God allow this to happen to me if He loves me?” Now I don’t have all the answers to that, but I do have a promise that God gave us to remember in tough times.
Romans 8:28 reminds us, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose.”
We live in a world full of sin. Bad things are going to happen to us, to our friends, to our family, and to the world. However, we know that if we love God, He will work those things together for our good and for His glory.
Why Does God Love Me?
Love is not simply something God does. It is who He is. God is love. It is because of that He loves YOU.
“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” 1 John 4:7-8
He doesn’t love you because you deserve it. We see in the Bible, even the “superstar” Christians knew they were unworthy of God’s love.
Check out what David says in 2nd Samuel 7:18, “Then King David went in and sat before the LORD, and he said: ‘Who am I, Sovereign LORD, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far?'”
God loves us because of who He is. He shares that love for us and affirms it through the Bible and through the Gospel.
How Does the Bible Show God Loves Us?
The entire Bible is a great love story. Honestly, I think my kids’ Jesus Storybook Bible sums it up best. History is one great love story leading up to Jesus dying on the cross for us and allowing us to come back into fellowship with God. The Bible is our tool to get to know who God is.
The greatest act of love in the Bible is when Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins. I will admit, often I have thought, “What’s the big deal about Jesus dying for us? People die all the time for things, for people.” What I have come to realize and learn in adulthood is it’s not just about his death. First, Jesus lived a PERFECT life. He did not sin even once. That’s something He did for us because we CANNOT. It is impossible for us to live sinless lives. Second, Jesus took the weight of every sin of every person who has ever and will ever live. The weight of that sin caused temporary separation from God at Jesus’ death. He bore the pain of that separation for us, so we never have to. We can be close to God now and forever because of Jesus. Third, he stayed. I love how Timothy Keller put this in his book The Meaning of Marriage.
“Well, when Jesus looked down from the cross, he didn’t think ‘I am giving myself to you because you are so attractive to me.’ No, he was in agony, and he looked down at us – denying him, abandoning him, and betraying him – and in the greatest act of love in history, he STAYED.”
Jesus stayed. He could have abandoned his post and avoided his responsibility, but he stayed and suffered because he loves us.
I Still Don’t Believe God Loves Me. I’ve Done Too Much. The Gospel Is For Others, Not Me.
I want to start by saying you are not alone in this feeling. I always had the head knowledge that Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so, but I never believed it in my heart. (Read my testimony here.)
Thinking we have done too much wrong for God to love us is a tool right out of the enemy’s playbook. The enemy uses guilt and shame to try to separate us from God. The funny thing is that God doesn’t even hold our sins against us! When we believe in Jesus and that he raised from the dead to give us power over our sin, and confess our sins to God, we have a clean slate! Each time we repent of our sins to God, he forgives and forgets. Truly forgets.
When we stand before God in Heaven one day, He won’t be asking us to give an account for all our sins. He will be asking us to give an account of what we did with the freedom He gave us.
The gospel, God’s love, is for everyone. Don’t allow your sin to separate you from the love of God because Jesus has already paid the price for that. He gave us victory over sin and death, and it is time for us all to start living like it!
“O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.“
1 Corinthians 15:55-57
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