“God loves you.” We hear it virtually everywhere. It’s a simple phrase, yet it has a weighty implication. Sure, it’s easy to believe it when things are going well. But what of those trying times? How do I know God loves me?
Things don’t happen randomly when your life is in God’s hands. In the good and the bad, God is with you. Some of the difficulties we encounter come in to help us in ways we hadn’t envisioned.
Take the case of Sue Nelson, for instance, blogger at Woman of Noble Character, as she gives her story:
“I see how God loves me every day! When I went through a particularly stressful time last fall, my heart rate shot up. I went to the ER and they decided to do a CT scan which found three masses on my liver.
Had God not allowed me to enter that stressful time and so many things going wrong, they would have never found the recurrence of cancer.
Sometimes He allows us to walk in the wilderness to see the beauty on the other side. I see His love mostly in His Word and promises. With Him, I will never walk alone.”
Ways That Answer “How Do I Know God Loves Me?”
He knew you before you were born.
God created you and knew your path before you took your first breath. As it is said in Psalms 139: 13
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“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.”
Psalms 139: 13
You weren’t an accident or a mere result of a man and woman coming together. God put thought and care into you right from the very start.
Looking at Mike Friesen’s view on how he knows God loves him, in his words:
“I know God loves me because God has given me a life. Life is a gift.”
Even as someone who experiences depression and God feels far in that, God has given me God’s self through the way His presence in my wife, family, and friends.
God is always with us. God is faithful to us. God always loves us. God always holds onto us, even when we feel we are drifting away.”
Christ died for you
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
John 3:16
One of the most famous verses in the Bible shows God’s love for you. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us – taking God’s wrath for your sin on himself and clearing for you the path to God. As Diane Ferreira from Worth Beyond Rubies puts it:
“I hate to use the children’s song as a response but because the Bible tells me so! I know God loves me because His Word demonstrates as much throughout.
From the creation narrative to the Book of Revelation, His loving-kindness or “chesed” in the Hebrew is evident. Chesed is demonstrated best when you show it without any expectation of receiving anything in return.
God shows us chesed even when we are unlovable and He loves us even in our rebellious nature. His giving of His only Son for our redemption is the ultimate show of His love and of chesed.”
Now, thanks to Christ’s sacrifice, we can boldly approach God. As it says in Hebrews 4:16,
“Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”
Hebrews 4:16
To quote the influencer Jesus Branch,
“I know that God loves me because He looks after me like the loving Father He is. He always answers and helps me above and exceeding my prayers and expectations, even until this day. Luke 11:9 And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.”
God wants a personal relationship with you
We find numerous references from the scriptures about God wanting to relate with you.
Take Jeremiah 33:3 for instance:
“Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know”
In John 10:14-16 are the words:
“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.”
John 10:14-16
Here, Jesus explains his intricate knowledge of his sheep. He cares for each and every member of the flock—and that includes you who have accepted him as Lord.
Furthermore, in John 15:5, Christ tells us to abide in him, and only in this way will we bear fruit.
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”
John 15:5
All this points to how God wants a personal connection with you.
God gets jealous of you.
So, we’ve established that God wants to be in a relationship with you. What happens when you give your attention to someone else? There will be jealousy when someone loves you and wants your affection, yet your sights and efforts are directed to another. The same case applies here—on a broader scale.
God wants your love, affection, and an intricate bond between you and Him. In this, He will bless and take care of you. He’ll get jealous when your affections are set out on other gods and idols.
Right from the commandments, in Exodus 20:2-6, are the words:
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.
You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.
You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments. “
Exodus 20:2-6
Regardless of how “lost” one is, God will eagerly welcome you with open arms. Here’s testimony picked from the dr. Brian Kiczek:
“I know God loves me because I have always thought of myself as special, irreplaceable, worthy of living forever, and this came from deep in my heart.
For almost ten years of my life I was an atheist, someone who did not believe in God, I was this mostly because I knew if God existed I was going to live forever but in hell.
God loves me because He is patient with me, He waited for me to get tired of living for nothing but myself, tired of living for nothing and He showed me that through Him I will live forever Glorifying God who loved me so much as to die for me as if I was the only one ever!”
God’s Love For You
Just as the Psalmist says, it endures forever. How do I know God loves me? As you can see from scripture and day-to-day encounters, God wants you for Himself and is ready to welcome and walk with you daily.
Regardless of what life throws your way, when you abide in God, He will be your strength and refuge.
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