I Now Believe God Loves Me

1 JOHN 4:16 ESV 16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

Although I have endeavored to walk with the Lord for decades, only in recent times have I started to really believe God loves me.

My problem was that I kept focusing on myself, instead of God.

I saw myself in my immaturity with all my faults and failures. I was not looking at Jesus the perfect sacrifice, but focused on myself and my shortcomings.

Even though I preached messages on the love of God, I never had complete confidence that God truly loved me just as I was. Instead I thought more in terms of God tolerating me, but not being too happy with me.

I was trying my best to do what I thought God wanted, not really realizing that I could never earn God's love.

Now I am realizing that God's love is not dependent on me, but is entirely dependent on God alone. He does not love me because I am lovable, but because by nature He is perfect love.

As long as I thought God's acceptance of me and good standing with Him was based on my performance, it made it hard to believe God loved me.

I could believe God accepted me, that He didn't want me to go to hell. I could believe God tolerated me. But I did not believe God was happy with me. I did not think He took any delight in me.

Have you ever had a child? I can tell you, as a parent, that it is a great delight! Every child, no matter how many you have, is very special to you. You love them so deeply it is difficult to express.

So I have decided to believe the Bible. God is my Father. He is the perfect father, so He loves me! Nothing else needs to be considered.

Why?

Because He said He was my Father, and every good father loves their child.

There is another major reason I know God loves me -- what He did for me through Jesus -- who was God living in a human body. He died for me! No greater love can be shown than to die for someone.

It makes a big difference in life when you truly believe God loves you. Fear (of anything) has a much harder time scaring you. Even when things seem to be going horribly wrong, you know God is watching over you, and even if you have made mistakes, He will be there to help you.

SAY THIS: I am so glad I finally accepted the truth that God loves me.