St. Peter’s Square was packed with hundreds of thousands of people, all there for one reason. My wife and I waited expectantly, and soon a murmur began to spread through the crowd. Then, there he was!
Pope John Paul II emerged onto the balcony and waved at the people assembled below. Soon, he began offering a blessing—at least, that’s what we assumed he was doing—and the crowd quieted.
Which made me wonder: what does it mean to be blessed by the Pope as part of such a large group of people? The Pope doesn’t know me; how could anything he does affect me personally? Does he express love toward the overall crowd in general, or is he somehow speaking to me as well?
I’ve wondered the same thing about how God loves us.
How about you? Do you believe that God loves you? I mean, do you actually receive and feel his love—individually, personally, as if he was right there with you?
Sometimes, I find myself searching for those feelings of personal connection with God. But I also wonder: maybe I’m thinking about spiritual feelings backwards …
The Heart for God’s Love
Because of my struggles with these feelings—or lack of them—I decided to study how God loves us and looked up dozens of verses on the topic in the Bible.
After my research, it hit me that I had been thinking about God’s love in an incomplete and sometimes backwards way. It’s abundantly clear that he does love his people. But our human emotions and feelings come and go, so I shouldn’t mope around waiting to feel God love me. I should focus more on doing my part, which is for me to love God!
After all, God is God. Who are we to question how he chooses to interact with us? It occurred to me that if I love God with all my heart, then the feelings part will work itself out over time.
Scripture offers wonderful direction for our lives including on how God loves us. Our most critical guidance comes when Jesus is asked, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” His answer …
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” (Mark 12:30)
The Soul for God’s Love
Years ago, our family was going through some very tough times, and life was hard. During that period, I would sometimes go alone to the evening chapel service at our church in Atlanta.
One night, I was feeling especially discouraged. They were serving communion, and the pastor was a friend of mine named Bob. As he handed me the communion elements, Bob personalized the blessing as, “Steve, there is nothing that can separate you from God’s love.”
And something supernatural happened deep in my soul.
I felt something powerful sweep over me and started weeping on the spot. At that moment, I knew God loved me, personally, no matter what else was going on in my life.
“And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love.” (Romans 8:38)
The Mind for God’s Love
Each person’s spiritual journey is their own. For me, it often helps to think about things out in my mind before my heart becomes ready for the next step.
Here is a simple, logical set of connected statements that came to me about how God loves us:
A. God loves his people – The Bible is full of God’s promises that demonstrate his feelings for us, including how deeply he loves us. I believe them to be true and representative of God’s character.
B: I am one of God’s people – When I placed my faith in God, he began changing me, and he interacts with me through his Word (reading the Bible), prayer, people, circumstances, and other ways.
C: Therefore, God loves me – If statements “A” and “B” are both true, then “C” must be true as well! That may seem overly simple to use elementary arithmetic to discern how God loves us, but somehow it works for me.
“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)
The Strength for God’s Love
Reading the Bible also connected God’s love to several key actions we should all take into account. After seeing these themes repeated in Scripture, it helped me understand more specifically the steps I should be taking along my personal spiritual journey. Because they seem to be part of how God loves us.
We must first understand that doing things doesn’t earn God’s love. But doing the right things allows us to move toward him and make progress along our journey. And even to feel his love more.
What are our actions the Bible connects to how God loves us? The ones I noticed were:
- Loving God
- Loving others
- Pursuing a relationship with him
- Trusting him and keeping our faith
- Obeying what he asks us to do
I’m coming to realize that if I keep doing the things I should be doing, the feelings part will work out over time. In the meantime, it’s interesting to keep thinking about how God loves us, but the most amazing part is that he does!
“God loves each of us as if there were only one of us.” (Saint Augustine)
