Does God Really Love Me

Does God really love me? Whether we acknowledge it or not, this is the question deep within our core that we long to have answered. In fact, it is the question on which our very identity hinges. The answer to this will either help confirm our significance and purpose or completely break us. Our world is broken…desperately. We sense it everywhere we go.

Something seems quite off, even deep within us. We may try to push off these feelings, tell ourselves this is just the way things are, and grow numb toward our situation; only to fill our lives with whatever can distract our minds just long enough until total exhaustion sets in. We are experts at making things look all together on the outside, while on the inside we’re just one step away from another crisis meltdown. But we’re only fooling ourselves.

This poignant feeling can be witnessed in the heart’s cry of a 37 year old mother of 3 who just lost her husband to cancer. Or the haunting childhood memories of a young boy once violated by the one whom he totally confided in, stripping away almost every ounce of his innocence or dignity. It could even be more subtle, such as the persistent, nagging whispers from society reminding us on a daily basis that we’re worthless, unwanted, unattractive, insignificant and unlovable.

Where Is God Amidst All My Pain & Struggle?

Does God really love me? “How could he…as if he cares or even exists?” we tell ourselves. I’ve experienced far too much pain, darkness and disappointment to believe that this is true. It’s all been said before, that He is a God who loves me and is in ultimate control. Yet, I’ve screwed up too many times and He’s let me down more than I care to admit. There is no hope for me here, nobody that seems to care.

How could it be that God loves me? So our instant reaction may be to medicate this longing or void for love with one more drink, one more girl, one more show, or one more household chore. We skillfully suppress these feelings deep into the recesses of our minds like unwanted house guests.

This life is really hard. Trust me I know, and I can totally relate with many of these same emotions, questions and life experiences that you may be dealing with right now. Things don’t seem to be the way they should or could have been. Fairytales and happy endings are just children’s stories, right? Then we grow up to face reality. Nostalgia sets in. How can we even make sense of this?

The Story Of One Who Suffered

There’s a story I once heard about a man. He was just like you and I. In fact, “There was nothing attractive about him, nothing to cause us to take a second look. He was looked down on and passed over, a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand. One look at him and people turned away. We looked down on him, thought he was scum. He was beaten, he was tortured, but he didn’t say a word. Like a lamb taken to be slaughtered and like a sheep being sheared, he took it all in silence.

Justice miscarried, and he was led off— and did anyone really know what was happening? He died without a thought for his own welfare, beaten bloody for the sins of my people. They buried him with the wicked, threw him in a grave with a rich man, even though he’d never hurt a soul or said one word that wasn’t true. Still, it’s what God had in mind all along, to crush him with pain. The plan was that he give himself as an offering for sin so that he’d see life come from it—life, life, and more life. And God’s plan will deeply prosper through him” (The Message, Isaiah 53:2-10).

God Loves You More Than You Can Imagine

How does this address the question—does God really love me? Take a moment to read and reflect on that passage again. I’m not sure what you were taught growing up, but God really sent his ONLY son, Jesus, into a dark and lost world to save the very creation that turned its backs on Him! He didn’t merely just sit this one out as a disinterested spectator wishing us good will and expecting us to clean up this mess on our own. Quite the contrary, God decided to pursue us before we ever even realized we needed Him. And he is constantly chasing after you.

Can you see how messed up things really have gotten? Turn on the evening news for 10 minutes, and you’ll be bombarded with enough negative messages of doom and gloom to leave anyone paralyzed. We are way off of the mark, far East of Eden. This is not how God ever intended things to be, but there’s a lot more to the story than we can even fathom.

That is exactly why Jesus entered the very story we had subjected ourselves to long ago. In fact, there was no other chance of redemption for mankind except for the death of a perfect sacrifice. God in human form took on the very same flesh, bones, harassment, and struggles that we face daily in our lives, so that He could not only be our hero, but our Savior. It is our choice to accept or reject His love story.

While every other voice may cause you to doubt God’s love for you, there is still One you can turn to in your time of despair and doubt. He has given it all just to be with you. In fact, I’ve heard it once said that even if you were the only person that ever existed throughout the entire course of history, God still would have made the very same sacrifice. Just for you alone. Can you receive that? Will you believe it? Therefore, when we are tempted to questions God’s love for us, we need to set our focus on Jesus, the lover of our souls.