Do you believe God loves you? Whether you attend church regularly or have never stepped foot inside a church, you have probably heard that God loves you. Maybe you grew up singing the song, “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”
But then you became an adult and life happened. Now you struggle to reconcile the message of God’s love for you with all the trials you have experienced: a spouse who left; or a child with a chronic disease; or constant financial struggles. And when you think about it all, it makes you mad at God because He seems so unfair – blessing others, but not blessing you.
This is the same situation that happened 2400 years ago, which we read about in the last book of the Old Testament of the Bible. The prophet Malachi wrote these words to the Israelites: ““I have loved you,” says the Lord. But you ask, “How have you loved us?” (Malachi 1:2) In this verse, God’s special people are questioning God’s love for them. They wonder if God cares about them at all anymore. They look at their circumstances, their own struggles, and the success of their enemies, and they feel abandoned.
If you can relate to that feeling of being rejected or abandoned by God, then I want to encourage you today. It is easy to let your circumstances dictate how you feel about God, but the storms of your life do not change who God is or how He feels about you. 1 John 4:7 tells us that “God is love.” It is his very character and it is directed toward every person in this entire world. In fact, “God so loved the world that He gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him will not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
Proof of God’s love for you is shown in the Christmas season when we celebrate God coming to earth as a baby. You see, Jesus came and lived a perfect life and yet he willingly died on a criminal’s cross in exchange so that we can one day experience eternal life with God. All we have to do is believe that this offer of life is true and put our trust and our hope in Jesus.
The fact that God sent his Son to earth to right the wrongs you have committed proves that God’s love for you is more than empty words. It’s more than a happy cliché. It is the good news every one of us needs to cling to in the middle of the difficulties we face in life.
If you are struggling with not feeling loved, I encourage you to check out a local church (we meet Sundays in Chariton, Iowa at 10:15 AM). Give God the opportunity to show you his loving presence through a church family. You might be surprised to feel that God truly DOES love you!
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