Does God really love us as much as He says He does? Keep reading!
Love matters. It always has.
I have a friend who is a family therapist, and she told me that babies who are unloved or unwanted by their parents know it in the womb. Her point was that love matters deeply to us before we even breathe our first breath.
We all long to be loved, and that longing seems to be present from our beginning. Your desire to be loved is hardwired into your very being. You were born with a craving for love.
You were born with a need to be loved, and God has met that need by loving you since before you were born.
Here's how God's Word describes His love for you:
The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying: "I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness" (Jer. 31:3).
This verse describes God's love for you as "everlasting." My thesaurus says that means His love is "constant, boundless, ceaseless, endless, eternal, timeless, and limitless."
Psalm 139 gives us another picture of God's love:
Verses 13–16 say: "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works awe wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be."
He has always known you. He has always cared for you. He has always loved you.
How much does He love you, exactly? Enough to send His son as a ransom for you (John 3:16). Enough to send the Holy Spirit to advocate for you, teach you, and give you peace (John 14:23–29). Enough to promise that He would never leave you or change His mind about you (Heb. 13:5).
Notice that these assurances of His love for you were written long before your birth was announced. He doesn't love you because of how you look, what you do, or even who you are. He loves you because He created you. He has loved you from the beginning, and He will love you without end.
Yes, you were born with a need for love, but you were also born being loved by the God who knit you together in your momma's tummy. It's not the kind of love you have to earn or work to keep. Sit still for a minute and let that truth marinate in your heart.
How have you experienced God's love? Does knowing He has always loved you make a difference in the way you feel about yourself? How does knowing that God's love for you is everlasting impact the way you live?
