Did you grow up singing, “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so…”?
I’ve been counseling and discipling folks for over 25 years, and trust me, the older people get the more they doubt that God loves them.
Why? Simply, because we often fall into Satan’s trap of viewing God and His love for us through our circumstances instead of through the cross.
As soon as trials hit, Satan is right there suggesting to us that God doesn’t love us and can’t be trusted.
After all, if He loved us, nothing would ever go wrong, loved ones would get sick or die, and we would always be healthy and wealthy. Right?
Well, that would be nice, but it’s not the reality of the world we live in.
It wasn’t the reality of the world Jesus lived in.
Why does God the Father love Jesus?
First, God the Father is, by His Nature, Agape.
Second, Jesus is His only begotten Son.
Jesus’ obedience did not provoke the Father’s love; it was the evidence of their love for one another even to the extreme of Jesus’ death on the cross.
Our performance doesn’t provoke God’s love for us; He simply loves us because we are His kids.
Our obedience brings Him pleasure, because He knows that it’s proof of our resting in His love.
Jesus told us that when we are living out of His love for us, we will walk in obedience to His commandments.
When we sin, we are not resting in His love; we think the things of the flesh will satisfy, when the truth is that only God’s love truly satisfies.
But, even when we do sin, His love for us never changes.
Also, don’t fall into the trap of looking inside yourself to find something you think would motivate God to love you. That’s pride.
He loves us because of who He is; He is the Provoker, not us.
We know Jesus loves us simply because of the cross!
Beloved, our only response to His love is to humbly receive it every day, rest in it, and allow Him to express it through us to those around us.
Blessings!