How do you know God loves you? What is the basis of your belief in His love?

Do you believe He loves you because someone else told you He does?

“This is what my pastor says.”  

“My parents told me about His love when I was a kid.”

“My Sunday school teacher taught me about Him.”

Or do you believe His love because you have experienced it for yourself, and your heart has come to life because you have felt His affection for you?

If you aren’t sure, that’s okay. Many people struggle to believe He loves them. They might know it in their head: “Yeah, God loves me.” But their heart is asking, “Is that true? Does He REALLY love me?”

Do your emotions confuse you and tell you negative things about God’s love?

Some of us have very strong emotions that (for right now) try to lead us into negativity.

If we don’t take our emotions “captive” (2 Cor. 10:5), they will try to tell us what is real and what is not. We can have trouble believing the Lord actually loves us because we feel like He doesn’t love us. 

“If God really loved me, I would know it.”

“I feel bad about myself, and I bet God feels this way about me too.”

“If I feel like I am not loved, it must be that I am not loved.”

Those are emotions we need to take captive.

Emotions are like sheep that need a shepherd. They can’t shepherd themselves.

Every time our emotions tell us that God is far away, disappointed, or fed up with us, we get to say, “No. The truth is that I am dearly loved even when I can’t feel it. I can trust His love for me all the time—on my good days and on my bad days. Everything the Bible says about His love is true for me right now.”

Whenever you can’t feel His love, remember what the Bible says about it:

He is REJOICING over you. He is quiet and tender with His love, and He is also loud about it—He sings because He is so delighted with you.

Adonai your God is right there with you,
as a mighty savior.
He will rejoice over you and be glad,
he will be silent in his love,
he will shout over you with joy. (Zeph. 3:17 CJB)

When you are in need, He comes close to help you. In His great love for you, He bends down to teach you even very practical things—whatever you need to know.

It was I who taught Ephraim to walk,
    taking them by the arms;
but they did not realize
    it was I who healed them. (Hos. 11:3 NIV)

He does not reject those who run away from Him. In fact, if you wander away from His care, He drops everything, goes after you, and hunts you down until He finds you. Then He rejoices over you; He doesn’t criticize you or punish you for running away.

What do you think a man does who has one hundred sheep and one of them gets lost? …When he finds it, I tell you, he feels far happier over this one sheep than over the ninety-nine that did not get lost. In just the same way your Father in heaven does not want any of these little ones to be lost. (Matt. 18:12–14 GNT)

If you have trouble believing God’s love…

Let Scripture be your guide, and choose to believe His love even when you can’t see it with your natural eyes or feel it with your emotions. 

• When your thoughts are dark and heavy, say “yes” to the love of God.

• When you feel like you are too broken for Him, say “yes” to His love.

• When you are aware of your sins, say “yes” to His love.

• When you are worried about the future, say “yes” to His love.

• When you feel like a failure, say “yes” to His love.

• When you don’t know what to do, say “yes” to His love.

• When you are confused, say “yes” to His love.

This week, ask the Lord to show you His love in a special way. Then keep the eyes of your faith open. Watch to see His love. His love could show up in unexpected ways—like a valentine from heaven.

Your heavenly Father loves you more than you realize! For more about His amazing, unending love, check out Becoming the One by Salomé Roat. Click here to learn more. The book is also available in Spanish.