Does God Love Me

QUESTION: Does God Love Me?

ANSWER:

As you cry out: "does God love me," and suffer because you feel unable to know God's love, Jesus understands. Jesus felt similar pain when He cried from the cross, "My God, my God why have you forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46, KJV).

Jesus, who was sinless, went to the cross carrying the burden of our sins in obedience to the will of the Father. At that moment He felt the separation from His Father, God. As He cried out, "why have you forsaken me," maybe even Jesus felt as if God didn't love Him at that moment.

God longs for the relationship He created you to have with Him (Genesis 2:7-8). He even provided the way, through the work of the cross, for you to be reconciled with Him and gave you free will to make the choice.

Consider the following truths about God's love and read the corresponding verses:

• God is love and God loves you (2 Corinthians 13:11)
  
  
• Nothing can separate you from the love of God (Romans 8:35, 38-39)
  
  
• God loves you even while you are still a sinner (Ephesians 2:4-5)
  
  
• God created you for His pleasure (Revelation 4:11)
  
  
• God knew you before you were born, even as you were "knitted in your mother's womb" (Isaiah 43:7)
  
  
• God gave His only Son so that you can live forever with Him (John 3:16)
  
  
• God calls you His friend (John 15:15)
  
  
• God disciplines those whom He loves (Hebrews 12:5-6)
  
  
• God's sovereignty limits your crisis and gives meaning to your problems (Job 1:12; 2:6)
  
  
• God comforts you in your troubles, not necessarily from your troubles (2 Corinthians 1:4)
  
  
• God says in His word, "For I know the thoughts that I think towards you, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope" (Jeremiah 29:11)
  
  
• The Lord is your helper (Hebrews 13:6).

"Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ's love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture. None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. I'm absolutely convinced that nothing - nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable - absolutely nothing can get between us and God's love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us" (Romans 8:35; 37-39 MSG).