How do you know God loves you?

The question was posed to me today, how do you know God loves you?   It was in a bible study setting, but it kind of took my breath away.  I immediately thought, i don't know how I would answer that to someone.  I don't have a miraculous story of conceiving a child after sterility, or curing of cancer, or anything really monumental like that.   How do I know God loves me?  I have asked him for monumental things in my life, but I have never received them, so how do I know that God loves me?

Then it occurred to  me, that I know God loves me because of the unanswered prayers.   I wouldn't say i've had an easy life, and often times I have asked God to make situations different, or to give me something.  He didn't.  But, what if he had?   If I had gotten all I asked for, i would not be the same person.

Even recently I prayed and asked God for a child, I asked him for an almost immaculate conception, or to adopt a baby.  He did not give these things to me, but he did allow me to work with a wonderful youth group, who are so dear to my heart.

However, in not answering that prayer, he answered one I didn't ask for.  He gave me the gift of photography.   He is allowing me to do something that is fun to me, challenging, and at the same time enhances the lives of others.   Had God answered that prayer i asked for, and given me a child, my life would have a different route.  I would not be able to devote time to photography, i would not be so blessed by helping others.

I believe that God has given me the gift of photography to allow me to take care of my family in the future. That I will be able to run a profitable business, that my husband will be able to retire, and i will be able to set my own schedule so that we can enjoy and live life together to the fullest.   It is not a gift that I asked God for, but one he gave me instead of what I asked for.   One that has changed my life.  

How do I know that God loves me?  because I asked for silver and he gave me gold!!!


There are lots of other ways I know God loves me,  He has allowed me to be witness to so many blessings, and has blessed my life in so many ways.

I know people who say things to me like, if there was a God, and he loved me, then "such and such" wouldn't have happened to me.   I have friends who lost children,  friends who lost parents, friends who were raped, or involved in very bad relationships.   and they, doubt that God loves them.  How do I tell them that God loves them?

God never promised us that things would be easy.   He never promised us that there wouldn't be pain.  I have had pain.  I have not had easy.   But all of these things, they serve a purpose, they make me who I am, and that is exactly what God had planned.   God doesn't do things to us because he thinks it's fun to watch us suffer.   When we suffer, God suffers with us, when we cry, God wipes our tears.   It takes a very strong person to realize that God loves us even when things are difficult, even when circumstances are overwhelming.    God loves us, even though we don't deserve it.

Sometimes, it helps me to have a visual.   I think of God's love like a parent whose toddler is just beginning to walk.  Sometimes, you have to let them fall in order for them to learn to walk.   That doesn't mean he loves you less.  It just means he loves you enough to pick you up and wipe away your tears when you fall.


Remember, he loves us though we are not worthy of his love.