How do I know that God loves me?

People often approach religion with a fixed mindset: obey these rules and God will love/favour/spare you. Christianity turns this on its head because it teaches us that God still loves us even if we break the rules. In fact, he loved us before we realised the rules existed.

Romans 5:8 says: “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

We don’t need to earn God’s love by being good. He loves us anyway.

This verse also tells us that he loved us enough to send Jesus to die for us. He knew we would never be truly good in our own steam, so he sacrificed his perfect, beloved Son so we could be set free from sin and have a relationship with him.

John 3:16 says: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

God loves the world and everyone in it. And he wants to live with us forever, which shows that his love is both unconditional and everlasting. He chose to create every single one of us; no life is an accident to God.

Psalm 119:3 says: “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.”

Not only did he create us, but he wants to give us an abundant life, full of hope and purpose. Like any loving parent, he wants us to do well.

Jeremiah 29:11 says: “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’”

God wants to nurture, develop and sustain us. Our own plans lead to death and destruction, but God desires to see us bear fruit.

John 15:4 says: “‘Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.’”

God wants us to stay close to him every day, and he loves us so much that he wants to share his secrets with us. He wants to have an intimate relationship with us!

Jeremiah 33:3 says: “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.”

While some imagine God to be cold and distant, the God of the Bible is shown to be up close and personal! He took on flesh and walked among us, healing and setting people free.

Psalm 145:8-9 says: “The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made.”

Best of all, nothing we or any else can do could stop God loving us. He loves us with a passionate and never-ending love that cannot be broken.

Romans 8:38-39 says: “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

If you have never experienced God’s love, ask him to reveal it to you through prayer, scripture, a friend or just as you go about your daily life. He wants to show you!

1 John 4:7-8 says: “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.”