Sometimes we might wonder if God truly loves us. Do I have to do anything to deserve His love? If I have sinned, does God still love me? How can I show Him my love??
God loves us no matter what we’ve done. He’s interested in us, He understands us, He knows all about our weaknesses, and He knows about our strengths, He made us the way that we are, and He wants it to go well for us.
We think of God as a Father, and it can be easy to think that He is a father who just wants to punish us, and make things difficult for us. But that is not how He is, He is for us. He understands very well where we struggle, and He wants to help it go better for us.
How do I know that God loves me?
God shows His love for us in His Word in many ways. We have to believe what He says in His Word. He takes care of us and He reminds us of His Word when we need it. There are so many things in life that we can’t predict. So many things that are changing, so many things that are hard. But His Word never changes. And when we hold on to it, we start seeing how much He loves us. He shows us what to do! And there’s always a Word to help us. But we have to be willing to listen.
When we ask for forgiveness, God gives it, and then that sin is wiped out. This is such a proof of His love, it gives us such peace to know that when we go to sleep all of the sin we committed is already wiped out. He made this possible by sending the best He had, His Son, Jesus, because He loves us so much.
There isn’t anything that we need to do to deserve God’s love. We don’t earn God’s love. So, if we carry around a burden of guilt after we’ve asked for forgiveness, then we don’t believe in what God’s Word says. God has forgotten it; we must also move on and be really willing to do His will next time.
We can struggle with feeling guilty about things from the past. One time I felt so poorly about myself, and I just said, “God, help me to see myself how You see me.” And then He reminded me that He made me! And He knows me! And He has such good plans for me. And it was such a relief for me. And I realised that all that heaviness was from my own thoughts; those weren’t God’s thoughts for me. And it was a great help for me to realise how He sees me.
How to love God
When we understand how much God loves us, how much He’s interested in us personally and how much He’s done for us personally, it changes the way we think. It changes the way we want to live. It changes our choices and priorities. It’s a very practical thing, it becomes a part of how we live. We become interested in pleasing Him. So, the way we talk to other people, the way we spend our money, the way we spend our time, it all has to show that we love God back.
And we have His Word. It says in John 14:15, “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” We have to do what He says in His Word. And of course, we find that we don’t do everything perfectly, because we have our human nature. But our intention is always to keep His commandments. And when we see things we could do better, we make a firm decision to be more prepared next time.
To love God means that we love the people around us. God is in heaven, but there’s lots of people around us, and we can be very active in blessing them and loving them. So, loving God back is something that is part of our everyday life. It is the way that we live, and it becomes more and more part of our thoughts.
His commandments show His love for us
God’s commandments show His love for us. They are the way for us to live the happiest life possible. His commandments are not heavy, it says, and it’s really true. (1 John 5:3.) We don’t keep His commandments because we have to, or to prove that we love God. We keep His commandments because we know that is the best possible thing we can do, and in that way, we’re faithful to Him who loves us.
Especially as a young person, you can feel that God’s commandments are just: “You can’t do this, and you can’t do that.” But the truth is, that the happiest possible life is to live within the protection of those commandments, because God’s wisdom is so much greater than ours, and when we obey those commandments, we’re protected from all the evil results of sin, and will truly experience God’s love in the best possible way.
