I wrote this article for iBelieve.com. Start reading about what to do when you question God’s love and then head over to iBelieve for the rest of the article.
To the questioner:
You see the giant highway signs that proclaim, “God Loves You!” but doubt those words could apply to you. Or maybe you grew up singing, “Jesus Loves Me, This I Know,” but recent events have made you question the truth of those lyrics. It could be a great sadness has visited your life and now you wonder about everything you’ve ever believed.
First, let me reassure you, dear friend, that you are not alone in your questions. In this broken world we often find ourselves groping through a fog of doubt and confusion. We long for clarity, yet our hearts struggle to grab onto certainty.
But even while your current path seems to lead through clouds of doubt, God walks right beside you. He knows our frail human natures and never leaves us even when we have difficulty believing that. How comforting to know that His love doesn’t depend on our trust. God’s love is not like the Tinkerbelle fairy in Peter Pan who begins to fade away and is only revived by the audience’s faith in her. His affection for us stays true and certain whether we have the strength to believe that or not. God’s love never wavers or diminishes.
Because God knows your doubts and misgivings, He has written you a love letter. Throughout His Word, the Bible, He has left us messages of His affection for you. Picture a World War II wife who longs to see her soldier husband. She misses his daily presence and when months go by without a word from him she begins to wonder if he still loves her. Does he think about her? Or has he found someone else in some far off country? To silence her doubts she pulls out past letters. As she reads and rereads, her doubts begin to melt. The person who wrote those words would never abandon her. In that same way, we can open up God’s love letter to us to quiet our questioning hearts and restore our confidence in the God of love.
To help you find the words that will renew your trust in God’s love, ask yourself why these doubts have come.
Do you feel that a perfect God could never love imperfect you? Of course He could love the woman next door who has her act together. But you? He probably sees the sticky kitchen floor, the argument you had with your husband, and the pounds you’ve put on and look right past you. If that’s how you feel, read Psalm 107:7-8, “Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for mankind, for he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things” (NIV). God specializes in loving the imperfect. He looks for the thirsty, the hungry, the ones who need Him. God sees our messy homes, our messy lives and still holds out His open arms. You don’t need to clean up your life or put on makeup to cover your flaws before He accepts and adores you.
Do you feel that God could never love you because of what you’ve done?