Scripture tells us over and over that we are loved by God. Nothing can separate us from His love (Rom. 8:35-39). The ultimate demonstration of His love was giving His Son to become a human and die for us. He also gives us a new self to live from and puts peace and kindness in our hearts. His Scripture makes us wise and transforms our lives. His Spirit lives in us and actively and patiently works in us. God even answers prayers. And the best gift is that He guarantees us a fantastic eternal destiny. So shouldn’t it be easy to trust that we are loved by God?
Unfortunately, trust doesn’t come naturally to us. Consider how often we lose our faith in His love. When life starts caving in, it is harder to keep faith that we are loved by God. We think, “God is all powerful so if He loves me why is this happening to me?” This is when it is important to remember that in this life we have to live in a painful world even though God loves us. He is not like an earthly father who would rescue us from any major harm if he could. Instead, He transforms our hearts and enables us to show the world how a Christian lives through pain.
Jesus is our model and since we are united to Him we should also accept suffering like He did (Phil. 3:10). Just think what would happen if God protected Christians from tragedies. Eventually people would figure it out, and swarms of people would flood the churches hoping for protection. But they wouldn’t be seeking God; they would be seeking safety. It would ruin churches and produce hoards of hypocrites.
So it is very important that we embrace God’s love for us, both with our mind and with our heart. We cling to this until it penetrates to our core, whether we feel it or not. In fact, it is better to learn to trust His love when we don’t feel it – our faith should not depend on temporary feelings.
And it isn’t enough to believe that God loves His people in general, or that you are confident he loves the Christian around you. Rather, you need to believe you are loved by God individually, specifically, passionately. Tell yourself “God loves me” and notice how your mind and heart respond. If this harmonizes with you then you are receiving His love. Is there resistance or unbelief? That’s a sign that you need to process whatever is blocking you, let go of your unbelief and choose to trust that He loves you. If you stop believing He loves you it makes it much harder for Him to help you, just like we can’t do much for someone in need if they won’t trust us enough to take the risk of letting us help them. God does love you and the more you believe it the more it will change your life.
