How can you know God loves you? Pose that question to any good Christian and she’ll whip out John 3:16 and hand it to you with a flourish.
“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.“
And she wouldn’t be wrong. He sent his son to die for you. What’s more loving than that? But if that’s all she says, she stopped too soon.
Hi, I’m Lauren Thell, author of Christian YA fiction and blogger for teens who are ready to exceed the world’s expectations.
In This Article
How Do I Know God Loves Me?
Most of us stop too soon when wondering, “How do I know God loves ME personally?” We settle instead for an unsatisfying answer that leaves too much room for doubt. When you look at John 3:16 strictly in terms of what you’ve narrowly avoided (hell), you might experience a moment of gratitude and still lack the deep sense of truly being loved.
If the entire Bible is all about not going to hell, what makes God different from every other slavemaster who holds the threat of prison over his servants’ heads to elicit obedience?
It’s the missing second half that rounds out God’s love. God’s love isn’t found only in him taking away suffering and death. You know God loves you because he offers himself—and all that he is—to you.
NOT THE LIFE YOU’VE BEEN GIVEN, BUT HIS PRESENCE IN YOUR LIFE
If you want to measure God’s love by how cushy your life is on earth, then you would have to conclude that God hated the apostle Paul. Poor Paul was shipwrecked, thrown in prison, and flogged more times than any human should be able to survive. And yet God clearly loved him. We know this because he showed up in the worst of Paul’s suffering (Acts 16:16-40). He comforted Paul on his darkest nights, strengthened him during his longest voyages, and put words in his mouth during his toughest trials.
God shared himself with Paul and allowed him to enjoy the benefits of his glory.
The evidence of God’s love is not in the removal of pain or suffering—an illness reversed or a hardship removed—but in Christ revealing himself in that moment so you may know him and be blessed by him.
NOT IN THE OPTION TO CHOOSE, BUT IN THE CHOICES YOU’RE GIVEN
God is not an arrogant deity who sits in heaven, watching with amusement as little humans struggle with each other like gladiators thrust into an arena. Nor is he a giant kid holding a remote control, working us like mini robots.
He gives you the choice. He pursues you, offering all that he has to you. But he never makes you take it if you don’t want it.
But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul.
Deuteronomy 4:29
If you seek him in return, he will be found. God’s not like the mean big brother who moves away every time the little brother gets close during a game of hide and seek. He wants to be found by you so you may bask in his unfathomable goodness and shelter under his wings.
Think of the owner of a luxury spa, inviting you in to relax and be blessed for no charge. You can know God loves you because he offers you so much more than that.
NOT JUST FOR NOW, BUT FOR ETERNITY
I think our boredom when we talk about heaven has to do with our misconception of what heaven is. Heaven is not an eternal amusement park, or an eternal day at the mall, or an eternal football season, or whatever it is you think makes you happiest.
Jesus describes eternal life in John 17:3:
“Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”
Heaven is eternal him—more and more and more of his glory and power and love and strength and everything amazing. Jon Piper from DesiringGod.org describes it as “a great Alpine range. And you crawl up over the first range after 10,000 years, and there’s another one to climb. And you crawl up over that range of glory after 10,000 years, and there’s another one to climb. And you’re never, ever bored. It’s all him.”
“Heaven is eternal him—more and more and more of his glory and power and love and strength and everything amazing.”
Heaven is not a place so much as it is God revealed in all his glory, filling the ravenous hole in your heart that can’t be satisfied with social media, or shopping, or romance novels, or all the ice cream in the world.
Imagine having all your cravings satisfied for eternity. How do you know God loves you? Because he does this for you.
NOT JUST HIS SACRIFICE, BUT HIS ESSENCE
God broke down the barrier that separates you from him, not just because he doesn’t want you to suffer an eternity of darkness, but because he wants you to enjoy an eternity of glory.
“Because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.”
Ephesians 2:4-5
Love is giving someone what they need the most when they deserve it the least. You don’t deserve the glory and satisfaction found in his presence, but he wants so much for you to have it, he made a way at great personal cost to him.
Because he knows what you experience on earth is a mere blink in the vastness of all he has to offer you.
Because every good thing he has is reserved for you.
Your love, Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. Your righteousness is like the highest mountains, your justice like the great deep. You, Lord, preserve both people and animals. How priceless is your unfailing love, O God! People take refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the abundance of your house; you give them drink from your river of delights. For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light.
Psalm 36:5-9
Clearly, God loves you.
Further Reading to Help You Know God Loves You
You don’t have to have all the answers.
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Bring me your questions about faith, life, God, the Bible… and I’ll help you find the answers.