Because of Jesus—I am Loved

As a little girl, did you dream of the man who, someday, would pursue you in a gentlemanly way, a man who would convince you (and your dad) that he loved you and would cherish you as long as he lived? He would be your knight in shining armor. I dreamed of such a man, and my little girls dreamed and even pretend-played in the same way.

We all have a desire to be loved and cherished. As little girls we look to our fathers to fulfill our need for love. As women, we hope for a real-life Prince Charming. However, in the flawed world in which we live, even godly men often fail to communicate or show love in the ways we perceive we need it. We must realize that our childhood dreams of love were immature and unrealistic, like romance novels and Hallmark movies.

God gave the desire.

Knowing He was the only One who could truly fulfill it, God gave you the desire and the need to be loved. Unfortunately, if you have not experienced unconditional love from parents or others, your view of a love relationship will be distorted, and you may resist God’s love. Even if you were tenderly loved as a child, you may have a hard time recognizing and accepting God’s love. Can you believe that God loves you? He loves you like no other person can. God alone can ultimately fulfill your desire to be cherished and loved.

God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Insert your name in this verse: God demonstrates His own love for __________ in that while she was yet a sinner, Christ died for her. Think about what this means. Before you came to Christ and believed in His redemptive work on the cross on your behalf, even as an enemy of God, He loved you. He called you to Himself and made a way for you to be reconciled to Him.

Though God is holy and sin cannot exist in His presence, He loved you so much, wanting to have communion with you, a genuine relationship with you, that He sent His Son to pay the price for your sin. While you were helpless to find a way to Him, God made the way through Christ.

You are loved!

We live in an information-saturated society. Almost any information we want is literally at our fingertips; but don’t confuse information with knowledge. Knowledge is information that has become your own. It has become a part of you. Knowledge put into action, the practical outworking of what you know, is wisdom. In Ephesians, Paul prays that all believers will know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge. Think of all the knowledge there is in the world, every book and record of all the experiences of man throughout history. The knowledge of the love of Christ surpasses it all. No greater knowledge exists, or ever will exist, than the experiential knowledge of Jesus Christ and His love for you.

Embracing God’s love for you will change the way you live.

When you are confident of God’s love, you become more secure in who you are. Your life will have meaning and purpose. You will know that you belong to Him. You are His, and He is yours. If you make unwise choices or fall to temptation, will God still love you? The answer is yes! He loves you enough to help you see sin from His perspective, to see that sin is harmful, even destructive for you. God hates sin because of what it does to those He loves. You will begin to look at sin the way God sees it.

As you become convinced of God’s love for you, you will be free to love others, yes, even the unlovely and unlovable. Anyone can return love to someone who truly loves them. It is only through Christ that you can love when love is not returned. You will begin to love others unconditionally. What freedom you will experience! Through Christ and His love, you will learn to allow Him to love others through you.

The more you know God’s love for you through Christ, the more you will be convinced that NOTHING can separate you from His love! There is never a “He loves me. He loves me not,” with God. You can rest in this great truth.

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39

What if this week, the first thing you say when you stand in front of the mirror each morning is, “Because of Jesus, I am loved! I am His, and He is mine!” Say it out loud. Believe it.

More about God’s love for you:

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. John 3:16

And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. Romans 5:5

Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. John 15:9

For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man; so that Christ may well in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fulness of God. Ephesians 3:14-19

In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and send His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 1 John 4:10