…God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
One of the most powerful verses in the Bible is 1 John 4:8 (ESV), which says, Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In other words, God’s very nature is love, and it is more powerful than anything else in the universe. All He has to offer us is love. Everything He does is rooted in love. And it is impossible for God to be anything but loving. Whenever you think about God, read about Him in His Word, or talk to Him, you can be certain that He loves you all the time.
The apostle Paul writes in Romans 5:5 that the love of God is poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit. When we choose Jesus as our Lord and Savior, the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in our hearts through faith as one of God’s gifts to us. He does many things for us and works in our lives in various ways, one of which is to bring God’s love to us and to remind us of it.
A person with a wounded soul may struggle to believe God loves her. She may feel she is not valuable enough to be loved by God or she may fear that God is like people who have said they loved her and then hurt her. But what God wants is for us to receive His love by faith, believing He is greater than our fears, our failures, our weaknesses, and the pain of our past.
When we are able to stand firm in the knowledge that God loves us, our hearts are filled with confidence, peace, joy, hope, concern for others, and positive attitudes toward our future.
I encourage you to ask the Holy Spirit to continue to reveal God’s love to you in personal ways and to look up Scriptures about God’s love. I also encourage you to memorize these Scriptures to help yourself become more firmly established in the fact that He loves you. Here are a few to get you started:
- “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16 ESV).
- “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness” (Jer. 31:3 NIV).
- “But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness” (Ps. 86:15 ESV).
- “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8 ESV).
As you meditate on these verses and others like them and ask the Holy Spirit to make them real and personal to you, you will grow in your confidence that God loves you.
Prayer of the Day: Lord, help me fully receive Your love and stand firm in it. Help me to completely trust that You are always with me, no matter what, amen.
